I fear the brain drain started before 2016… hence the vote
Good, put me in as well. I’m planning to fuck off to Ireland in the near future.
Think research is more at risk because USS and UUK are destroying academic pensions, workload is unsustainable and there are too many precarious short-term contracts for researchers. There’s very little incentive to pursue a research career in the UK.
I think the rise in anti-intellectualism and the rise of conspiracy theorists is not going to help either. The general public seem to be content ignoring research or being hostile to it, simply because they don’t understand it or see it as a threat to their worldview. Why work in a country that does not value your contributions to it?
I was working as a scientist around the time of the vote and I was already seeing the impact then – people passing over jobs or studentships in the UK because of the uncertainty. I also saw a rise in xenophobia; a good friend was shouted at to ‘go back to where she came from’ :/ – yeah think I’d rather have an international student with a PhD in the country than some local racist dick ><
maybe it’ll have gotten better now things are a little more concrete, but science lives or dies by international collaboration so I find it hard to see how… putting up barriers (however small) to impede free movement is only going to hinder research unfortunately
now I know I’m not really describing brain drain, more people choosing not to come to the UK, but again if the best researchers are in the EU then that’s where people are going to go to do PhDs or lectureships… it’ll be death by 1,000 cuts I think
The thicker the electorate, the better for the Conservatives.
I think all companies doing research should pull out the UK. It’s no longer an inclusive place where people are welcomed.
With this lot in government, all they care about is themselves.
Literally just reading the news now – Johnson says people fleeing Ukraine are welcome to come IF their immediate family members are already settled here. That’s pathetic! So many countries are opening their borders and homes to what are now refugees of war. They don’t need passports or anything. They (and their pets) are being welcomed freely with no paperwork. And the UK is being useless as usual. Just based on that alone shows the kind of place the UK is now. Why would people be rushing to come here voluntarily?
Most of my skilled friends already left to EU or other countries. With UK getting involved in this Ukraine war for no reason the few remaining are pissed off as well. Expect more to leave but rent prices to keep rising.
Good. Less experts in this country. We have had enough of them.
/s
Partner works in a Russell Group University as a lecturer. They are having massive problems hiring post-grads in just about every department at the moment, and are short on staff because so many of them were European and left post-Brexit.
What they’re finding is that native UK grads are just not qualified enough for a lot of the roles.
The UK used to have a huge global influence through the status of our research institutions. We’ll have mostly lost that in a decade, and all of those researchers will simply move to Europe where the funding remains.
10 comments
I fear the brain drain started before 2016… hence the vote
Good, put me in as well. I’m planning to fuck off to Ireland in the near future.
Think research is more at risk because USS and UUK are destroying academic pensions, workload is unsustainable and there are too many precarious short-term contracts for researchers. There’s very little incentive to pursue a research career in the UK.
I think the rise in anti-intellectualism and the rise of conspiracy theorists is not going to help either. The general public seem to be content ignoring research or being hostile to it, simply because they don’t understand it or see it as a threat to their worldview. Why work in a country that does not value your contributions to it?
I was working as a scientist around the time of the vote and I was already seeing the impact then – people passing over jobs or studentships in the UK because of the uncertainty. I also saw a rise in xenophobia; a good friend was shouted at to ‘go back to where she came from’ :/ – yeah think I’d rather have an international student with a PhD in the country than some local racist dick ><
maybe it’ll have gotten better now things are a little more concrete, but science lives or dies by international collaboration so I find it hard to see how… putting up barriers (however small) to impede free movement is only going to hinder research unfortunately
now I know I’m not really describing brain drain, more people choosing not to come to the UK, but again if the best researchers are in the EU then that’s where people are going to go to do PhDs or lectureships… it’ll be death by 1,000 cuts I think
The thicker the electorate, the better for the Conservatives.
I think all companies doing research should pull out the UK. It’s no longer an inclusive place where people are welcomed.
With this lot in government, all they care about is themselves.
Literally just reading the news now – Johnson says people fleeing Ukraine are welcome to come IF their immediate family members are already settled here. That’s pathetic! So many countries are opening their borders and homes to what are now refugees of war. They don’t need passports or anything. They (and their pets) are being welcomed freely with no paperwork. And the UK is being useless as usual. Just based on that alone shows the kind of place the UK is now. Why would people be rushing to come here voluntarily?
Most of my skilled friends already left to EU or other countries. With UK getting involved in this Ukraine war for no reason the few remaining are pissed off as well. Expect more to leave but rent prices to keep rising.
Good. Less experts in this country. We have had enough of them.
/s
Partner works in a Russell Group University as a lecturer. They are having massive problems hiring post-grads in just about every department at the moment, and are short on staff because so many of them were European and left post-Brexit.
What they’re finding is that native UK grads are just not qualified enough for a lot of the roles.
The UK used to have a huge global influence through the status of our research institutions. We’ll have mostly lost that in a decade, and all of those researchers will simply move to Europe where the funding remains.