To Leave or Not to Leave: Two University Students from Northern Ireland Reflect on the “Brain Drain”
Maja Ochojska graduated from the College in the spring of 2023, majoring in Government and minoring in Justice and Peace Studies. She had a particular interest in conflict resolution and transformation, as well as international migration.
In recent years, many high-profile media outlets, think-tanks, politicians, and other influential voices raised alarm bells regarding the “brain drain” out of Northern Ireland (NI). The Irish Times has called the phenomenon “very considerable,” while the Financial Times claimed it is a continuation of similar Troubles-era demographic shifts. The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster lamented that, despite the “two fantastic universities” that NI has, the brain drain has persisted throughout the peace era. In NI, politicians from both sides of the political divide blame the other for political stagnation, something that has been dubbed a driving force of the drain.
What is a “brain drain”?
Conceptually, the term “brain drain” lacks nuance. Most sources that cite the term fail to provide a definition for it, as there is no defined threshold for when “regular” migration becomes a “drain.” It is rarely specified what kind of migration counts, as well as how duration and destination of migration factor in.
The brain drain in NI is a malleable concept, most often referring to young people with tertiary education who leave NI after earning their university degree and those who leave to obtain their degree elsewhere, with both groups ultimately settling in their new environments.
However, whether educated youths leave NI and whether their departure constitutes a brain drain are two very different questions. The answer to the former is simple: overwhelmingly, yes. The latter question, however, is entirely subjective in nature, with an alarming lack of statistics and conceptual definitions: Is studying in another part of the United Kingdom accounted for in the calculation? Are international students and immigrants taken into this equation?
Every year, around 30% of university-bound students in NI head across the water to take up their studies in Great Britain (GB). In the 2021-2022 academic year, this number was 5,365 students, while nearly 13,500 remained in NI, divided between Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University. In the same year, 29% of student places in NI universities were filled by students (5,755 of them) who were not originally from NI. The biggest portion of this incoming group, 3,885 students, were from neither GB nor the European Union. While the number of departees has remained stagnant over the past five years, the number of GB and international students at NI universities has grown rapidly, with roughly 2,000 more students from each group obtaining tertiary education in NI in 2022 than in 2017. Looking at the subgroup with this lens, can we really say that there is a drain happening?
While there are other life choices to be accounted for, such as young NI people leaving after graduating, or international students returning to their home countries, evidence suggests that the disparity between leavers and newcomers is not as large as imagined. Thus, it is important to ask why everyone seems to think, or perhaps is eager to believe, that there is a mass exodus of young people from NI?
“Not everywhere is just country roads, there are connections here, but it’s very difficult to develop yourself.”
To get some insight from the people at the heart of the issue, I spoke with two students from Ulster University. Owen* is in his final year of studying Interactive Media Studies, and Anna* is a recent graduate of the Journalism program, going on to complete her Master’s degree in England.
Both Owen and Anna expressed discontent with the quality of the primary and secondary education they received in NI. For Anna, who attended Protestant schools throughout her life, religious and cultural education was always limited to learning about Christian denominations only, taught through the prism of division and difference. For Owen, who attended a Catholic primary school and an integrated secondary school, both environments were negatively impacted by religious segregation in schooling. Owen felt that in secondary school, integration was often prioritized over quality of education and preparing students for life after school, partially due to teacher disillusionment and partially to the monumental task that equitable and inclusive integration is in a segregated society like NI. Both Anna and Owen felt they did not receive adequate guidance or preparation for applying to and attending university; a mixture of haphazard college counseling, last-minute application pressure, teachers’ demotivating attitudes, and a vocational focus in school did not facilitate a smooth transition into tertiary education.
For Owen, who grew up with a Catholic background, things looked up in university. He feels that religious segregation is not as much of an issue at Ulster University: “my girlfriend is a Protestant, all my friends are Protestants, all the guys I live with are Catholics, and everyone in my classes mixes.” He also feels comfortable talking about his religious background at his part-time job in a local bar. While Anna shares Owen’s positive outlook on her university experience, she believes that segregation continues in higher education environments. She feels that people select their friend groups based on religious backgrounds, citing the Ulster University Orange Order Society as one social space where segregation is status quo. Moreover, Anna notes that if she had not been placed in a dorm with international students in her first year, she would not have had any exposure to people from other cultures during her time at university.
With regard to the quality of the education itself, Owen believes that he is not getting the same level of education that he would be getting in GB or the Republic of Ireland (ROI), stating that the work from his peers in other institutions is “leaps and bounds above the standard of work that [Ulster University students] are putting out.” He believes that a lack of extracurricular opportunities and partnerships with future employers is largely to blame. On the other hand, Anna believes that the quality of education is comparable, adding that the “political knowledge and political awareness of growing up in NI is an advantage for young people, as many others from GB and other places don’t have that.”
Experiences and outcomes of segregation, both in education systems specifically and throughout their formative years, shaped both Anna and Owen’s perceptions on the society they live in. These perceived notions about their society in NI consequently affect how they imagine their future within it. For both, the biggest push factors influencing their decisions to leave NI are segregation and the general close-mindedness of society. Anna chose to pursue her Master’s degree in England not only because of the personal and professional development opportunities open to her in a new, bigger city, but also to escape the “small-town” mentality that is pervasive across NI. Anna believes that people do not try to leave their “enclaves,” content without interactions with people from other backgrounds. Anna believes that “a bit of tolerance and education about the world and different cultures and customs could go a long way.” Owen echoes the sentiment, calling the “old-worldliness” of attitudes about self-expression and exploration, even in bigger cities like Belfast, disheartening and demotivating for young people who want to explore their identities or use their creativity to build a “brand” for themselves in the creative sector. In the future, Owen wants to leave NI to travel and explore other ways of living, somewhere “farther afield” than the UK or ROI.
Segregation, Stagnation, and Economics as Drivers of Emigration
If (some conception of) the brain drain is real, it could be interpreted as a form of young people’s resistance towards the status quo. More simply, it could be the result of many individuals making a personal choice for their future. Or, maybe the idea of the brain drain is a product of what people in NI, looking at the society around them, think that young people should want, or rather not want for their futures. Witnessing the persistent segregation, political stagnation, and economic hardship plaguing the region, one may wonder how a young, educated, and globally-minded person could possibly want to live in such a society.
Regardless of whether the brain drain exists, what is more pressing is what the conversation around brain drain reveals about social pressures in NI today. These are some of the issues that emerge when we listen to young people talk about whether to leave NI: there are simply not enough university places for eager students wanting to stay in NI–many, especially in the medical field, have to go to GB for training. The constitutional question and the failures of Stormont to maintain itself as a government have widened holes in the social safety net–from cuts to unemployment insurance, to a lack of response to the COVID-19 pandemic and young people’s drug epidemic.Segregation across all levels of education has been a tool for the reproduction of religious discrimination, social immobility, and in turn segregation across other social spheres–such as housing and employment. These, among many, are the issues that policymakers, journalists, and activists should be headlining. It seems more likely, based on the above first-hand accounts, that the current presentation of the brain drain is a fear-mongering tactic, meant to mislead audiences about the occurrence of a perfectly rational response to a society that young people feel is setting them up for failure.
While Owen thinks of himself as being pessimistic towards the future prospects of NI (“the politicians are just not doing anything, really”) Anna considers herself realistic, or cautiously optimistic, and believes that society will “come together,” just not in the immediate future. Both believe that there is a lot of potential amongst young people, especially in the creative sector. Owen hopes that instead of big companies setting up shop in places like Derry and cities along the North Coast, young people can be empowered to set up their own businesses and create successful homegrown enterprises.
Just last year, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Ulster University’s newest Belfast campus, U.S. President Joe Biden said that “young people, instead of fleeing for opportunities elsewhere, can see their futures and careers for themselves that speak to unlimited possibilities here.” Let’s hope he was right, and if not, let’s hope that we will one day see an NI where this will be possible.
*Given the sensitive subject matter of this article, pseudonyms have been used to protect identity.
Sources
Beatty, Christina, and Steve Fothergill, “The Impact of Welfare Reform on Northern Ireland,” Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, October 2013.
FitzGerald, John, “Brain drain in Northern Ireland much worse than in the Republic,” The Irish Times, February 15, 2019.
Gallagher, Tony. “Integrated education in Northern Ireland: why progress is slow despite support,” The Conversation, August 16, 2022.
Murray, Anna, “Dáithí’s Law: What is it and why has it been delayed?” BBC, February, 20, 2023.
Noonan, Laura, “Northern Ireland battles brain drain of graduates,” The Financial Times, August 15, 2021.
Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency, “Drug-related and drug-misuse deaths in Northern Ireland, 2010-2020,” March 1, 2022.
Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency, “Qualifications Gained At UK Higher Education Institutions: Northern Ireland Analysis 2021/22,” March 30, 2023.
Pivotal, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” 2021.White House Briefing, “Remarks by President Biden Marking the 25th Anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement,” April 12, 2023.