RI's hidden brain drain<\/p>\n
Yohannes Samosir, School of Land and Food Sciences
\nThe University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia,
\ny.samosir@mailbox.uq.edu.au<\/p>\n
Peter Doherty, a professor and a 1996 Nobel Laureate, will be
\nreturning to his home country Australia after spending many years
\nin the United States. He also brings back a team of Australian
\ntalented scientists who have previously moved overseas. He is
\nvery concerned about brain drain in Australia as more and more
\neminent scientists and lecturers have moved overseas for a better
\ncareer and support in research and develoment.<\/p>\n
However Australia, one of the main destinations to skilled
\nmigrants, may rather experience brain gain. But this suggests
\nthat the country may lose high quality scientists and replace
\nthem with lower quality talented migrants.<\/p>\n
While Australia, one of the leading countries in the
\ndevelopment of science and technology, is worrying about brain
\ndrain, Indonesia is really suffering from brain drain. The point
\nis not the number of Indonesian well-trained scientists and
\nlecturers moving overseas, but rather the high number of them who
\nare underused. Many of them hold Masters and PhD degrees from
\nrespected universities both domestic and overseas.<\/p>\n
Having high-qualified talents is essential for R&D and
\nteaching. For decades the lack of Masters and PhDs, particularly
\noverseas (western) graduates is mostly to blame to why our R&D
\nhigher education are so poor. Each year hundreds of lecturers and
\nscientists both from government research institutes and state
\nuniversities go abroad to undertake postgraduate studies. This
\nincludes more than 100 of them going to Australia under the
\nAusAID public scholarship scheme.<\/p>\n
Studying overseas is costly to us; a masters degree course in
\nscience in Australia is Australian $69,000, equivalent to Rp 310
\nmillion. The cost for a PhD is roughly double that figure.<\/p>\n
Physically Indonesia does not suffer from brain drain since
\nmost of the students return home after finishing their studies.
\nThe drain is that we do not continuously nurture and put them to
\nwork.<\/p>\n
When they return to Indonesia, most of the graduates are
\ndisappointed with the system and facilities. Many of them could
\nonly do research and teaching just to get credit points for
\npromotion.<\/p>\n
Some are fighting for bureaucratic positions while some others
\nare busy moonlighting to help pay the bills and have a decent
\nlife. Interestingly, more and more go into politics. Only a few
\nwould likely be doing quality research and teaching.<\/p>\n
Science and technology develop very fast. Scientists and
\nlecturers are most likely out of date after three years unless
\nthey are continuously exposed to the pace of their field.
\nUnfortunately, keeping up to date in these fields is not cheap.<\/p>\n
Sadly, we do not have our own Nobel Laureate to ring a wake up
\ncall. Nevertheless, the message from Doherty to his nation, our
\nneighbor, can be heard from Indonesia. His concern must be
\ntapped, articulated and translated into actions for the benefits
\nto Indonesia.<\/p>\n
We need to review our higher education and R&D systems and
\npolicies in relation to the development of science and
\ntechnology. Focusing on having a large number of postgraduate
\ndegrees of S2 and S3 at the expense of poor continuing support
\nfor their expertise and work is bad policy. Talents then run out
\nof date after three years; our scientists will never reach a
\nworld-class standard under this cycle.<\/p>\n
Necessary review should cover the commitment of government on
\nR&D. With the current budget our R&D are going nowhere. High
\ninefficiency makes the budget even worst. Inefficiency is caused
\nby high overhead cost, highly regulated and bureaucratic, and
\noverlapping functions. Not to mention corruption, collusion and
\nnepotism.<\/p>\n
We need to merge some institutions at the national and local
\nlevels to increase efficiency. This approach is common in
\nbusiness but also in R&D, as has been applied in Europe,
\nAustralia and Japan. The idea of merging has been raised years
\nago in Indonesia, but no significant progress has been made.
\nPerhaps this is not pleasant for some people.<\/p>\n
Reviewing is very hard, especially when it is about our
\nignorance and comfort zone. But it must be done. However, we
\nshall not stop at the reviewing stage if we do not want the brain
\ncontinue going down the drain.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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