SA's research muscle 'fine'

"The brain drain may be overestimated, in that the rate of return to South Africa [of researchers] is not clear," said the report, released in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Its authors conceded however they did not investigate some specific sectors, such as the public health sector, where problems might be more critical.

The report, commissioned by the National Advisory Council on Innovation, said South Africans had only really been welcome to travel and work freely in other countries since 1994, and many of those currently abroad might eventually return.

Even if they did not, they still had formal and informal links with South Africa which could be exploited for the benefit of this country.

However, one things was clear. If South Africa's research system was seen to be weak or eroding, in that few jobs were available, this would encourage researchers to seek posts in other countries.

Research report

The report, based partly on interviews with 60 South African companies, found that though emigration figures of highly skilled researchers remained high, the greatest mobility of high-level skills was now within South Africa.

"The main conclusion of the study is that mobility needs to be recognised and managed proactively by making the domestic environment attractive and simultaneously maximising the participation of the research diaspora," said Prof Michael Kahn, leader of the HSRC team that produced the report.

The report also highlighted what it said were gaps in education policy on financial and other support for post-graduate students.

The fact that South Africa produced only 274 PhD graduates in the natural sciences and engineering in 2000 was indicative of the problem.

By comparison Mexico, which has a population roughly twice that of South Africa, aimed to produce 1 000 PhDs a year in information and communication technology alone by 2006.

A critical bottleneck was the supply of maths and physical science graduates from the school system.

Blacks made up only about a fifth of all school leavers with higher grade passes in these subjects.

The study also found there was a "striking" mismatch between the apparent good intentions of the Immigration Act's generous quotas for foreign academic researchers and other key professionals, and the complex and costly bureaucratic procedures that had to be followed to bring them to South Africa.

"Collaboration across key ministries and government departments needs to be reinforced if obstacles to mobility are to be removed," the study said.