人才外流在英国始终是引起激烈争论的一个问题。许多到国外(主要是美国)工作的科学家声称他们是因研究经费短缺而被迫出国的,但政府官员们却不以为然。这些官员们说英国的科学事业处于很正常的状态,其理由恰恰是每年到英国工作的外国留学者比离开英国到外国工作的科学家多。在他们看来,英国人才流动的总趋势是“内流”而不是“外流”。因此,尽管科学家们一再发出人才外流的警告,政府大臣们通常却充耳不闻。 The brain drain in the UK has always been a source of heated debate. Many of the scientists who come to work abroad, mainly the United States, claim that they were forced to leave the country because of a shortage of research funding, but government officials disagreed. The officials said that the science in Britain is in a normal state. The reason for this is precisely the fact that the number of foreign scholars working in Britain each year is more than that of scientists leaving the UK to work in foreign countries. In their view, the general trend of British talent flow is “influx” rather than “outflow.” As a result, government ministers often turn a deaf ear into warnings, despite repeated warnings from scientists on brain drain.