Here is an article I wrote about three months ago, for a Public Affairs Reporting project. I am posting it because it touches on a problem that is common to all s.c.b. readers and writers, and may provoke discussion on the matter. Excerpts from this article are quoted in the December issue of the Newsletter of IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board), the organization that is sponsoring me. Svilen Stoicheff 19 October, 1994 BRAIN DOWN THE DRAIN? When a physician dumps the stethoscope and goes into business one cannot help asking why. This is what Rositsa Yalamova did three years ago. She used to work as a physician at the Campus Health Center of Sofia University, Bulgaria. Then she won a fellowship to do a year s program in Budapest, in Business Administration. She spent some time afterwards working for an Italian company trading in pharmaceuticals, and is now completing her MBA at Pittsburgh University, U.S.A. "I can t say I m anxious to work in Bulgaria, and definitely not as a doctor any more, Yalamova said. Hers may seem an unlikely choice, but it is commendable when compared with that of many other doctors, teachers or researchers, who drive taxis or shake cocktails in their hours off work. Yalamova's is just one of many such stories of intelligent young people >from the developing post-communist world, or the so-called countries in transition. They seek education and employment in the West, lured by the higher living standards and lucrative job opportunities. Educational exchange programs are certainly a target with university students and professors, as a way of academic advancement, or of escaping to the West. "So what? some would argue, " people are free to choose where to study, live and work, and they have to be helped to do so. Right, yet the question is still there: What is behind educational exchange? Is its aim to render well-intended and unconditional assistance to scholars academic endeavors, or is it also a plan to increase the West s intellectual potential, brain-draining the less developed world? One thing is certain -- more than half a million international students are studying at different U.S. universities now, 2,700 of whom are in Indiana University alone. The number of students coming from the former Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern Europe has gone up abruptly since the collapse of the communist bloc. Many of these young people are unwilling to return to their home countries, where they will be faced with the harsh reality of low living standards and vague career prospects. They say they will try to remain in the U.S. or go to Western Europe. Quite a few have been successful and many more will be. "The main purpose of educational exchange is to provide a learning experience for both sides, said Beate Dafeldecker of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Washington, D.C. "This learning experience stretches beyond mere classroom activities, and involves the exchange of information on many aspects of the different cultures brought together. I believe both sides profit from exchanges. Profit they do, only it is hard to say where exactly the profit goes, and who gets the larger portion of it. If exchange is singly limited to providing talented foreign students with opportunities to study at prestigious Western universities, then it is only half the job done. "Therefore, exchange programs must be carefully designed and integrated into larger forms of assistance for developing countries, Dafeldecker said. At present, however, no balance has been achieved in the two-way flow of exchanges with Central and East European countries. Much more weight has been placed on admitting foreign students to U.S. universities, or creating U.S. educational institutions there, rather than on helping local universities to update and rationalize their curricula or modernize their equipment. IU Professor Randall Baker spent three months in Bulgaria in the summer of 1992. He assisted his colleagues from the New Bulgarian University to design a program in Public Administration. "I was very disappointed at the total neglect of this ambitious and innovative project on the part of the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Baker said. "Meanwhile an immense amount of attention and resources was devoted to the American University in Bulgaria, an institution entirely 2 alien for that country. Yet it appears easier to implant a ready-made model and establish a new structure, than to help reform the existing ones. The American University in Bulgaria (AUB), a branch of the University of Maine, has been successfully working for four years now, attracting the most intelligent and ambitious students from Bulgaria and from the whole of Eastern Europe. The test scores needed for admission there run much higher than the average for universities in the U.S. "Universities like that one, as well as training foreign students at U.S. universities, are certainly an option, but no solution to the educational crisis facing the ex-communist states, Baker said. "Their future lies in the reform of their own educational systems, incorporating both innovative and traditional approaches, as will best fit each particular situation. However, an outdated and inefficient system is like an old house -- it takes more time and money to repair. And bright young people have no time to wait. They want a career and a better life now. "I m planning to get my MA at some prestigious university in the U.S. Then I will be able to apply for a job anywhere in the world, said Vezhen Stoilov, a junior in Business Administration at AUB, who has won a couple of international competitions for small business projects. He is just one of the many who have their eyes fixed on large and prosperous international companies, rather than on their ailing national economies. And those companies keep an eye on them, too. Stoilov has received at least half a dozen employment offers so far. They cannot be blamed for that, nor can U.S. universities willing to host international students. Led by corporate or academic interests, they try to attract and motivate the best possible intellectual potential. "It is our duty to help students get the best education, preparing for a career they have chosen, said Kenneth Rogers, director of the Office of International Services at IU. "We advise them on the possibilities to remain in the U.S. for an indefinite period of time, if they will be getting better prospects for establishing themselves in a career, and doing research. Concerning their choice to remain here or return to their home countries, we occupy a neutral position. We are an educational institution, above all. In Roger s view, if all international scholars withdraw from U.S. universities now, the result will be a sharp slump in the quality of academic work and research. So if someone ought to be worried about the East European brain-drain problem, it is not U.S. academic institutions. Nor is it rich international employers, whose policy is to invest in capable and motivated personnel. Strangely enough, countries in transition keep complaining about their most talented students and specialists being hauled abroad, and at the same time they encourage this process. Their policies seem to promote educational exchange, without really accounting for an adequate balance between the outflow of scholars and the inflow of expertise. Viewed from a different angle, young people who decide to emigrate and apply their knowledge and skills in the advanced world are an investment, too. Historical experience shows that most of them do return, 10 or 20 years later, and are of much more help then, having established themselves in a career or business. However, if countries in transition are concerned with carrying out fast and effective reforms, they have to be more wary about encouraging educational exchange programs. Attracting relevant expertise to assist their educational reforms should be a priority, motivating young people to stay, rather than look for a quality education elsewhere. No one can predict whether letting young people go to Western universities is an investment in some indefinite future time, or simply more brain down the drain.