According to research by economists, twice as many physicists from a sample of the world's elite left Britain after completing their first degree than 25 other leading scientific countries.
The study said Britain was unable to compete with the United States and Switzerland, the two countries found to be able to attract the best scientists, where wages for top academics are higher.
The researchers, from the universities of Warwick and Newcastle, concluded that increases in the "wage premium" in "receiving" countries of top scientists would reinforce the trend and see more movement away from Britain. They said that "top scholars head to countries with high levels of research and development funding", which is declining in Britain compared to other leading countries.
The study, published in the Warwick Economics Research Institute bulletin, found there was a "greater attractiveness of the US compared to the UK as a place of residence and work for the highest quality of scientists".
While other countries were found to be experiencing the same trend, Britain lost 6 top physicists compared to three in Canada and Australia, the nearest net losers. When adjusted for population size, only these two and Austria did worse than Britain.
"Those persuaded by a sanguine view of international brain 'circulation', rather than drain, may wish to know that our later data paint largely a one-way picture, and one disproportionately towards the United States", the researchers said.
It also found that "UK success in winning Nobel science prizes has sharply declined", both compared to the US over the past 60 years and in general over the past two decades. While Britain won 20 Nobels compared to 45 in the US between 1947 and 1966, it won only 9 compared to 112 in the states between 1987 and 2006. "In the past 20 years the UK has lost its previous ability to attract future Nobel-prize-winning scientists from elsewhere", the researchers said.
Source: The Telegraph
The study said Britain was unable to compete with the United States and Switzerland, the two countries found to be able to attract the best scientists, where wages for top academics are higher.
The researchers, from the universities of Warwick and Newcastle, concluded that increases in the "wage premium" in "receiving" countries of top scientists would reinforce the trend and see more movement away from Britain. They said that "top scholars head to countries with high levels of research and development funding", which is declining in Britain compared to other leading countries.
The study, published in the Warwick Economics Research Institute bulletin, found there was a "greater attractiveness of the US compared to the UK as a place of residence and work for the highest quality of scientists".
While other countries were found to be experiencing the same trend, Britain lost 6 top physicists compared to three in Canada and Australia, the nearest net losers. When adjusted for population size, only these two and Austria did worse than Britain.
"Those persuaded by a sanguine view of international brain 'circulation', rather than drain, may wish to know that our later data paint largely a one-way picture, and one disproportionately towards the United States", the researchers said.
It also found that "UK success in winning Nobel science prizes has sharply declined", both compared to the US over the past 60 years and in general over the past two decades. While Britain won 20 Nobels compared to 45 in the US between 1947 and 1966, it won only 9 compared to 112 in the states between 1987 and 2006. "In the past 20 years the UK has lost its previous ability to attract future Nobel-prize-winning scientists from elsewhere", the researchers said.
Source: The Telegraph
