Northern Ireland has no unique student 'brain drain'

There is no student "brain drain" specific to Northern Ireland, according to experts.

Brain drain is a phrase often used to describe the numbers of students who leave Northern Ireland to study and live elsewhere.

But in-depth research for the Department for the Economy (DfE) has suggested that proportionally fewer students leave Northern Ireland than some other parts of the UK.

However, about one-third of Northern Irish graduates are over-qualified for the jobs they work in.

Student numbers are capped at universities in Northern Ireland and that has often led some to think that young people are "pushed" away to study and live.

But the DfE commissioned research, called Student Mobility into and out of Northern Ireland: What Brain Drain? paints a different picture.

It said that young people chose to move for a number of reasons including to experience a different place or different way of life.

That echoes the experience of 25-year-old Christine Smyth.

Although she studied in Belfast she took up a teaching role in Porto in Portugal three years ago, and her decision was driven by a desire to experience a different way of life.

"I always knew that I would want to move away after university and experience life in a different country," she said.

"I always loved languages and I always had a talent for foreign languages, so I always saw myself maybe ending up in Spain, France, Portugal."

Her degree required her to spend at least one semester abroad.

Smyth said that experience helped make living overseas feel like a natural choice.

"I shared a house in my final year with four other girls and literally all of us are now living abroad - not one of us is still in Northern Ireland," she said.

But she said the availability of work had also influenced her decision.

"I think Northern Ireland is a bit notorious for not having a lot of opportunities for teaching," she said.

And while she could see herself returning one day, she said finding work would be a concern.

"I do still see myself ending up in Northern Ireland at some stage down the line, and that's definitely something that worries me, what I would do for work if I came back home?" she said.

"You do have this image in your mind of being with your parents when they're older and being around your family when you yourself have children."

For now, though, she is happy with the life she has built in Portugal.

Rosie Adams is a pupil at Belfast's Malone College, who hopes to study environmental science or geography in Scotland.

"I want to go away from Northern Ireland," Adams told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

She said the main factor drawing her to study in Scotland is "the job opportunities relating to the landscape".

"The landscape is so different than Northern Ireland and I think in Scotland they tend to use all the landscape they have available to them for environmental studies.

"And I think it would be use useful to go somewhere where they utilise everything that they have," she added.

Adams said if she goes to Scotland for university, she might not come back to Northern Ireland.

One of Adams' peers, Nathaniel Robins, said he is also interested in geography but "would rather stay here" to go to Queen's University Belfast or Ulster University.

Among his reasons for staying was that "it's cheaper to go to university here than it is in Scotland or England".

Robins also said he "couldn't leave his whole family behind and all that security behind".

"I've got my whole family here too and nobody [in his family] has ever really left to go anywhere else."

No, especially if England is broken down into regions.

For instance, in Northern Ireland almost four in every five students (78%) stays in Northern Ireland to go to university, while about a fifth (22%) move away.

But in Wales, just under a third of students (29%) leave the country to study.

And the figure is much higher for some English regions.

In the East Midlands - which includes cities like Nottingham and Leicester - three-quarters of students (75%) leave the area to study.

In the South West - including cities like Bristol and Bath - almost two-thirds of students (64%) move elsewhere.

One of the research authors, Dr Anne Devlin from Economic and Social Research Institute told BBC News NI that there was "relatively low" student migration from Northern Ireland.

"We're saying there's no unique Northern Ireland brain drain," she said.

"Lots of 18-year-olds are moving across England and within England and into Wales for education."

"Northern Ireland is really not unique."

But the report did recommend that students from Northern Ireland, who had to move to study subjects like veterinary science which are only available elsewhere in the UK, get extra funding.

Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald, though, said Northern Ireland did need to attract more students from elsewhere.

"We have an opportunity to attract more students to come here and to study," she said.

"That's something I think that collectively we need to put a greater focus on.

"That will obviously support our universities, it will create more opportunities, it will support our local economy."

The research said that Northern Ireland had lower living costs for students than many other parts of the UK.

"A coordinated effort between the Department for the Economy and tourism bodies could promote Belfast and Derry/Londonderry as vibrant student cities with affordable living costs, attracting more students from Great Britain," it said.

"Such flows would provide universities with a more sustainable financial base than reliance on international students, which is vulnerable to volatile immigration policy."