BEIJING: China suffers the worst brain drain in the world, according to a new study that found seven out of every 10 students who enrol in an overseas university never return to live in their homeland.

Despite the booming economy and government incentives to return, an increasing number of the country’s brightest minds are relocating to wealthier nations, where they can usually benefit from higher living standards, brighter career opportunities and the freedom to have as many children as they wish.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences revealed 1.06 million Chinese have gone to study overseas since 1978, but only 275,000 have returned. The rest have taken postgraduate courses, employment, marriage or a change of citizenship.

Unlike illegal migrants from the countryside — many of whom are poorly schooled — the students are usually welcomed with open arms by western institutions, which gain high scholarship fees and academic excellence.

Britain has gone further than most to attract this pool of intellectual talent. Chinese students have been the biggest group of foreign nationals at UK schools and universities for several years. Last year their numbers increased 20 per cent to 60,000.

“This shows that Chinese students overseas, especially those with extraordinary abilities, are a real hit in the global tug-of-war for talent,” Yang Xiaojing, one of the authors of the report, was quoted as saying in the China Daily. “Against the backdrop of economic globalisation, an excessive brain drain will inevitably threaten the human resources, security and eventually the national economic and social security of any country.”

To reverse the trend, Beijing is offering bigger incentives for returnees. Under new regulations, senior scientists, engineers and corporate managers are exempted from the household registration system (which determines various state privileges in China), allowed higher salaries and promised places for their children at top universities.

—Dawn/The Guardian News Service