Brain drain of scientists from Slovenia after its accession to the European Union

Milena Bevc, Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana
Marko Ogorevc, Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana

Emigration – especially of the most educated persons – is, in most countries, a very poorly tracked phenomenon. The paper presents the methodology and results of an analysis of real (actual) emigration of researchers from Slovenia in the period 2004-2009. The analysis was made within a research project carried out for the Slovene Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, together with two other government bodies. Data was obtained through a survey of all organisations (in September 2009 - 770) which employed researchers registered at the Slovene research agency (in September 2009 - almost 13000 people). The survey was conducted in late 2009. Two different questionnaires were used – for two people in each organisation: one for directors and deans, and the second (census of emigrants) for cadre managers. The scope of the phenomenon, characteristics of emigrants and motives for emigration are monitored. For many reasons (surveying of the entire “population”, high response – one third of organisations which employed 55% of all researchers) the results are of great importance for the state’s policy on the science sector in Slovenia. Results are compared to those from a previous study on real brain drain of Slovene scientists (for the period 1995-2004), using the same methodology, survey (total population) and questionnaires. At the same time, results are also compared to potential emigration of Slovene scientists in 2005.