This phenomenon is not unique to the UT. In the 1990s, the percentage of AIOs hailing from foreign countries at Wageningen University of Life Sciences rose from 6% to 23%; at Delft University of Technology from 13% to 30%. Nationwide the trend continues.
How to explain this phenomenon?
The Dutch economy is increasingly becoming a knowledge economy. Demand for scientific research is growing accordingly, and is expected to become even higher in the future. However, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) estimates that a shortage in scientific personnel will arise by 2008. A large of number of staff will leave the academic system as they reach retirement; simultaneously, if the current economic situation remains the same and the outflow of young talented scientists continues, CPB predicts deficits of more than 2000 full-time positions. Consequently, the development of science is jeopardized by the impending personnel shortage.
Lured by the promise of high salaries, Dutch graduates increasingly look to business and industry. Foreign AIOs fill a gap left by Dutch students who each year are less and less interested in remaining in the academic system to pursue doctoral degrees, or even remaining in the country. Professors need strong, motivated PhD candidates, even if that requires looking to another country to find them.
What are the effects?
Besides allaying the effects of in imminent scientific personnel shortage, foreign AIOs offer unique insight by virtue of their dissimilar backgrounds. They often contribute fresh ways of approaching problems. Netty Haandrikman-Kollen, Assistant Personnel Advisor at TNW, says that for faculty and AIOs of TNW, it is also interesting to observe the dynamics in a group of foreign AIOs from the same country; here they must put aside preconceived hierarchical notions based on gender, religion or outdated caste systems.
In general, AIOs from beyond the EU need extra guidance the first year because often they come from teacher-centered systems where student initiative is not valued. An added challenge for foreign AIOs is writing their PhD thesis in English. While it is true that Dutch students must also write in a second language, for AIOs whose first language is Chinese or Arabic, the task can be especially daunting.
Haandrikman-Kollen, who has worked for more than five years with foreign AIOs and TWAIOs at the UT, dispels the myth that educating foreign students further aggravates the `brain drain' of scientific talent. Her observations show that the vast majority of foreign (TW)AIOs do not return to their home country. Some enter Dutch industry or foreign industry in the Netherlands. Others go home, others go to a different country.Thus, instead of `brain drain' one might better speak of a `brain gain'.
Many AIOs want to stay in the Netherlands but find the laws prohibitively restrictive in certain fields. To illustrate this, Haandrikman-Kollen explains that before a company hires a foreign applicant, it must fist advertise nationwide and Europa-wide. Only if no satisfactory applicant has been found may the company hire a non-EU employee.
The years ahead will determine the wisdom of the trend in universities to fill their programs with non-Dutch AIOs.
