The Science We've Lost

ARE SCIENTIFIC CAREERS AND EARNINGS COMPATIBLE?
Arina Salamonova, E-Professional.roo

Statistics have shown that the salary of Russian researchers and scientists averages 16,000 rubles per month, or approximately 5333 euros per year. Against this background, the incomes of their American, Japanese and Australian colleagues, exceeding 60,000 euros per year, seem fabulous. It becomes clear why 20,000 of the best minds of the Motherland go overseas every year.

As Alexander Faranosov writes in the article "Problems of brain drain from Russia" (with small abbreviations given below – VM), the trouble of the country is not at all in the outflow of scientists abroad. We are still far from the scale of migration in Western Europe. But the same Germany, France and Great Britain, who regularly lose much more bright heads, have an excellent base for replenishing personnel, and scientists from these countries, as a rule, have the opportunity to conduct parallel projects at home due to the small distance between states.

In Russia, there is no such mechanism for the reproduction of intellectual resources. It is sad, but a fact: in 1992 there were about 900 thousand scientists in the country who were actively engaged in scientific activity. Now only 450 thousand specialists can be formally counted among their cohort, but only 100 thousand of them actually devote more than half of their working time to research work. The average age of our scientists at the moment is 46 years, candidates of sciences – 53 years, doctors of sciences – 60 years. The share of specialists aged from 50 to 70 years exceeds 50%, whereas in the late 80s it did not reach even 27%.

The methodology for attracting foreign researchers has not been developed in our country, but in vain: according to some estimates given by Faranosov, about 230 thousand dollars benefit from attracting one humanitarian scientist, an engineer - 253 thousand, a doctor – 646 thousand, a specialist in scientific and technical profile - 800 thousand.

Accounting for financial losses from the "brain drain" in Russia is also not conducted. Experts say that the damage caused by the emigration of one specialist to the domestic economy is up to 3-4 billion dollars.

According to the site 's estimates polit-info.ru , currently, salaries in the field of "Science and Scientific Services" are 2.5 times lower than in banks, 2.2 times lower compared to industries related to lending, finance and insurance; the salary level of transport workers exceeded the same amount by 2.1 times, employees of judicial and legal institutions, construction and the branches of logistics - by 1.8 times.

Wages are lower than in science only in such sectors as agriculture, non-productive services for the population, culture and art, education and forestry.

Below we present the indicators of average wages in the scientific and research field in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, the USA and Australia. Looking at these figures, it will become clear why thousands of our best minds prefer life in exile to a career at home.

Alexander Faranosov, International Journal of Russian Studies

The "brain drain" in modern Russia is ambiguous. First of all, this is expressed in a differentiated approach to the consideration of such a phenomenon. It is quite problematic in fact to determine the validity of various opinions and statements of people close to this topic and somewhat distant from it. Firstly, it is very difficult to estimate the actual volumes of both the real outflow of scientists and latent. Secondly, the identification of the dominant opinion on this issue severely hits assumptions and statements that are not related to the dominant or refute it. Anyway, let's try to consider the most well-known points of view on this issue.

"Brain drain" is our problemThe problem of "brain drain" in Russia is often associated only with the process of leaving abroad scientists and highly qualified specialists.

This is not quite right. Undoubtedly, if an ordinary worker of a small factory goes abroad, then this unremarkable fact may simply go unnoticed. It is another matter if highly qualified scientists and academics leave Russia. According to some estimates, 25,000 scientists left Russia from 1999 to 2004, and 30,000 annually work under the contract system abroad, which is about 5-6% of the total scientific potential of the country. It is possible to identify several reasons for the "brain drain": poor availability of material, technical and instrumentation, insufficient attention of the state and society in the field of scientific research, low wages for both young scientists and highly qualified scientists, weak integration of fundamental science with public and private enterprises, low prestige of the status of a scientist in Russia.

The most important condition for the emergence of such a significant phenomenon in Russian statehood, or rather the acquisition of a "brain drain" of scale, was no less important event as the actual opening of borders associated with perestroika and later with the collapse of the USSR.

In this regard, even then the country for the first time felt the decline in the quality of education caused by the huge flow of emigration of Soviet Jews and ethnic Germans to Israel and Germany, respectively. The flow of emigrants to Israel turned out to be especially significant. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews, for the most part, had higher education and were considered highly qualified specialists in certain fields. Many of them held direct positions in the scientific community of the USSR. Thus, they have replenished and strengthened Israel's positions in education, science and other fields, contributing to the identification of specialists from this country who are competitive in the scientific and highly qualified labor market. Most of the Russian scientists who left the country after the collapse of the USSR were leading researchers of their universities and research institutes, as well as academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Previously, it was believed that a unilateral leak could not lead to any very deplorable results in science and other fields. But such excessive optimists may not have taken into account one important fact: one of the most important conditions for the normal existence and functioning of the system is how this system makes up for the natural and artificial outflow of personnel, how it can make up for these intellectual losses. In simple terms, the outflow of highly qualified personnel, primarily in the scientific field, had to be replenished by an approximately equal number of incoming scientists, "grown up" by their education, both young and experienced enough, who could join and continue scientific and other work almost painlessly for the industry. But our system turned out to have nothing to offer in this matter. It turned out that the number of scientists leaving exceeded the number of those being trained, which in the future meant a crisis or stagnation of science and education. Even if we accept the fact that the average Russian scientists leave 20000 per year, this figure is insignificant because it is less than migration between the leading countries of Europe: Germany, France, Italy. But in these countries there is a basis that contributes to the replenishment of personnel, and scientists of these countries, as a rule, keep in touch with their country and along the way can engage in research work at home in view of the small distances between states.

In addition, in modern conditions, there is a tendency to increase the average age of people engaged in science. This average age at the moment is 46 years, candidates of sciences – 53 years, doctors of sciences – 60 years. It is worth noting that the share of scientists aged from 50 to 70 years is more than 50%, whereas in the late 80s it did not exceed 27%.

In 1992, there were about 900 thousand scientists actively engaged in science in Russia. Now about 450 thousand specialists can be formally called scientists, of which only about 100 thousand devote more than half of their working time to studying unexplored areas and improving existing and developing new technology. The rest, most likely, wants to continue their scientific career, but does not have the necessary conditions, capabilities, equipment, motivation to carry out serious research.

Basically, Russian scientists go to work where conditions are better – in Western Europe and North America. Such countries, first of all, pursue the goal of replenishing their science and education in the most efficient way and with minimal costs. For example, according to some estimates, the United States benefits from the involvement of one humanitarian scientist about 230 thousand dollars, an engineer - 253 thousand, a doctor – 646 thousand, a specialist in scientific and technical profile - 800 thousand. According to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, about 340,000 of our fellow citizens left Russia for non-CIS countries from 1999 to 2004. By simple calculations, we get that almost every 13 emigrants is a scientist! Of course, specialists do not leave all profiles and specialties. The main group of emigrants are programmers, biotechnologists, molecular geneticists, restorers.

More recently, the vector of the leakage direction has shifted towards third countries, such as Paraguay, Venezuela, North and South Korea, Brazil.

The assessments of experts around the world also do not inspire optimism. According to the Commission on Education of the Council of Europe, the losses of the Russian Federation from the emigration of scientists annually amount to 50-60 billion dollars, and according to more modest calculations, with the departure of one major scientist, Russia loses about 300,000 dollars on average.

Recently, in most countries of the world, there has been a steady trend towards an increase in the number of people employed in the field of scientific research. So, in Finland there are about 200 people, in Sweden – over 150, in France and Japan – 135 people per 10,000 employed. The demand for research and intellectual knowledge is constantly increasing, which is reflected in a constant increase in wages in these countries compared to the average. But for our scientists going abroad, the salary, as a rule, is 4 times lower than that received by a foreign specialist of similar qualifications. Studies of the emigrant environment show that only 5% of all emigrant scientists successfully settle in a new place, and it only takes 2-3 years to adapt.

Another channel of brain drain should be recognized as a change of profession. A scientist who has not achieved concrete results in his scientific activity, for various reasons, can go into business, or simply change the scope of his activity. This problem, quite possibly, is even more significant than the outflow of personnel abroad. During the years of reforms in Russia, the main consumer of scientific developments – the science-intensive industry - was almost destroyed, which served as a natural process of the country becoming a raw material colony of the West.
Russia's share in the global knowledge-intensive sector fell from 7.3% in 1992 to 0.9% in 2000, while the United States increased its share from 28.1% (1992) to 33.9% in 2000.

Why?It is still difficult to definitively answer the question: "Why has the problem of brain drain become more active and relevant recently?"

One way or another, this issue is touched upon both in the Russian media and in everyday Russian life. He does not bypass either a sophisticated Moscow official or a simple Siberian farmer.

But one way or another, the following chain is clearly traced in this issue: village -city – large city – another country. In fact, this is in many ways an ideal career scheme for a modern Russian person born in the countryside. And the most interesting thing about this scheme is that a person does not want to stay in one place and does not want to come back. He wants to move only forward and the faster the better. Of course, the starting points in this scheme may change, but development in the opposite direction is practically excluded.

Gennady Vasilyevich Obolyansky, Candidate of Historical Sciences, professor of the Department of Empirical Sociology and Conflictology of Altai State University, believes that the problem of professional personnel leakage is mainly related to the notorious material factor, people simply cannot adequately live on a salary that does not correspond to their contribution to science and economics. "Let's say a young scientist who has achieved something in science and works at a university simply cannot live on his salary worthy of his status," says the professor. According to the latest data, the average salary in science in 2006 in Russia was about 14,000 rubles. According to officials, the salary increase in the scientific field amounted to 40%, compared with 2005. But this seemingly optimistic statistics cannot please those scientists who work at universities, because even a stumbled scientist at the university, according to Mr. Obolyansky, is not easy to live. Another reason, according to Professor Obolyansky, is the inability of a young man to realize his potential in the professional sphere. "The third reason used to be related to ideologization, but now we should talk about the lack of patriotic education in the school and student environment. If earlier the heroes were miners, builders of BAM, now the heroes are representatives of show business, they are now admired and are trying to imitate. So it turns out that people do not have those patriotic feelings for their native home and they can easily leave both their city and their country, " the professor sums up.

The flow of emigrants still remains large to Germany – a little more than 21,000 people in 2005, as well as the USA and Israel (4,040 and 1,745 people over the same period of time, respectively). These are just official statistics. What is actually the volume of those leaving in search of a better life – it is almost impossible to calculate.

Russian losses from "brain drain"Moscow State University spends about 400 thousand dollars to train one world-class specialist.

This amount consists, first of all, of the costs of educating future scientists, this is the loss of the contribution that specialists could make to the development of science, production and the country as a whole, this is the state costs of equipping laboratories, purchasing equipment. The state also incurs enormous costs with such an "internal" brain drain, when a Russian specialist lives in Russia, but works for Western companies or on international grants. The losses from such cooperation amount to about 600-700 million dollars a year annually. And due to the fact that our manufacturers of intellectual products do not know how to sell it and resort to the help of American or European intermediaries, annual losses amount to about 3-4 billion dollars.

SolutionsThere is a wonderful phrase in Russia: "Even if you are eaten, you have two ways out."

But if we move away from the humorous component of this saying, then we can confidently say that there will be a solution for each problem. The Russian government is trying to find solutions in the current situation. According to the statement of not the last people in the field of education and science, in the near future it is planned to raise the salary of a scientist with an experience of up to 30,000 rubles, and a young scientist – up to 15,000. According to officials, this should increase the attractiveness of the scientist's work within the Russian Federation.

In the issue of personnel leakage, Professor Obolyansky sees the main, necessary, but far from determining, condition for solving the problem in increasing the material interest, first of all, of young specialists. In his opinion, the creation of a strong material base may interest young people to stay working in their native villages and cities. "But at the same time, only the creation of a material base cannot completely prevent the outflow of personnel, it is necessary to increase the social status of a young scientist and specialist, to change the negative attitude towards him from the employer that has developed in modern Russian society. It is necessary to educate a child from childhood with patriotic feelings for his locality, his country." The professor believes that it is possible to try to recreate at the state level some departments of patriotic education, which in Soviet times was the Komsomol.

The problem of brain drain in different regions of the Russian Federation is solved in different ways, says Gennady Obolyansky, but all that unites them is attempts to increase the economic attractiveness of the village for young professionals. "There are examples when, for example, an agricultural university enters into contracts with rural enterprises and sends its graduates there." In turn, the local rural administrations, according to their assurances, are ready to allocate houses for housing to young specialists free of charge, so that only they can stay to work at home.

In fact, there can be many solutions. But whatever they are, one of the important factors remains human. Until a person independently, regardless of material and patriotic principles, understands that it is honorable to work in his village, in his city, in his country, then no laws will be able to move the problem from the dead point. Therefore, it is necessary to change the psychology of a young person in this matter.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru04.02.2008