Union sounds alarm over brain drain, lecturer conditions

The Union of Algerian Doctors and Researchers, a body representing senior university academics and researchers, has raised the alarm regarding national research capacity and output as the country continues to suffer the effects of a massive brain drain to foreign countries.

In a statement reportedly released in early January, senior academics and researchers called on the authorities to take heed of their demands for government to contribute to the search for solutions to their problems.

The union called for higher education to reconnect with the skilled Algerians abroad for the benefit of the Algerian economy.

The authors of the statement also called on the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to take appropriate measures to link scientific research outlets with the needs of the Algerian economy and society.

The union said it was developing a national project for scientific research aimed at providing realistic solutions and alternatives for developing and encouraging research, according to Ennahar, a daily independent newspaper.

This call is not the first, since the other representative of Algerian researchers, the National Syndicate of Researchers, also made a public statement at the end of its meeting held on 23 and 24 December in Algiers, in which it listed a number of demands.

Among these demands was tenure for permanent researchers in the civil service, a policy which was suspended in 2008, and the immediate review of the status of permanent researchers.

The researchers also requested a revision of salary scales to guarantee dignity to permanent researchers, an end to discrimination between the sectors of scientific research, a review of salaries for academics, the establishment of a permanent scientific research and technology ministry that includes all scientific research institutions, an end to the 'marginalisation’ of permanent research and the right of researchers to access continuous training.

After several meetings with the minister of higher education and scientific research, the researchers intend to maintain their demands.

The co-ordinator of the National Council of Higher Education Teachers, Abdelhafid Milat, in an interview with the daily El Watan newspaper, described the situation of the university teacher as very “unstable”.

Milat said “the current instability will have a direct impact on the quality of teaching and supervision of students. Their training will be incomplete because of the lack of logistical resources and research available to teachers”.

Milat said government has created a “deleterious atmosphere” in academia and had caused teachers distress, “for example, by the removal of political science departments in some universities and the closure of several research laboratories”.

“The university teachers’ situation has not changed one iota during these past 10 years. A real national project is needed that takes into account both the financial needs and the educational and logistical support needed to produce more, both pedagogical and in terms of research,” he said.