Brain drain: 100 graduates a week flee to find work

THE number of college graduates leaving the country for work has doubled to proportions last seen in the mid-1990s as student leaders accuse the Government of failing to stem a major brain drain.

The Union of Students in Ireland said billions of euro of investment in education from primary to third level will end up benefitting the Australian, Canadian and other economies where hundreds of graduates are now moving in the hunt for jobs every week.

The provisional figures from a Higher Education Authority (HEA) survey of last year’s graduates in March and April show that almost one-in-10 of last year’s honours (level 8) degree recipients is working overseas. The 9% figure is up from 5% a year ago, more than double the rate for 2007 graduates, and the same as those of 1996 graduates.