If we abstract from the specific features of the demand for qualified personnel in those countries that our compatriots most often choose for higher education, we can identify a number of common trends inherent in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Germany, or France. These are primarily specialties that are the most necessary for a person to be fed, healthy, protected, and entertained. An age-old formula expressed by the words "bread and circuses."
To feed the ever-growing population of the Earth, which today stands at 6 billion people with constantly shrinking areas available for cultivation, specialties that allow finding new sources of food come to the fore. These include biotechnology, biological and chemical engineering, biogenetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics, as well as health-related specialties such as pharmaceuticals and pharmacology.
For example, in the UK, 150,000 professional scientists work in the fields of biosciences, chemistry, and physics, and the pharmaceutical sector alone hires from 15 to 200 thousand young specialists annually. Of the 9,610 graduates of British universities in 2001 who chose various scientific specialties as their major, 3,295 found employment in industries related to biosciences, 2,445 in chemistry, 1,930 in physics, and 1,950 in ecology and environmental protection.
The recent scandal over the closure of the chemistry department at the University of Reading is not because the United Kingdom no longer needs qualified personnel in this field, but because of a lack of funding.
The Irish government is making significant efforts to develop an economy based on the latest achievements of science and technology, which in the West has been defined as a knowledge based economy. The government's intentions are evidenced by the fact that, according to the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the number of graduates of Irish universities over 10 years (from 1992 to 2002) more than doubled, from 20,500 to 42,000.
According to experts' forecasts, biotechnology will develop at an accelerated pace in the country from 2004 to 2010. Food production will also receive further development, and new jobs will appear there. Irish universities have readily responded to government plans and over 10 years, from 1991 to 2001, increased the output of personnel for food technology science from 1,661 to 3,704 people.
New Zealand, with its uniquely clean environment and highly developed agriculture, seeks to develop its biotechnology market. Thanks to the support of the New Zealand government, multinational companies are forming a significant biotechnology group in this country and actively developing this industry. The interest of companies is reflected in the activities of New Zealand universities, whose research budgets have doubled over the past five years.
Among all sectors of the Canadian economy, the largest growth in the number of jobs – 2.6% – is in the field of scientific research.
According to German labor market analysts, the country has an acute shortage of scientists in the exact and natural sciences. As a result, the gap in the latest production technologies between Germany and other leading countries is widening.
According to the Information System on Specialty Selection and Labor Market of the University of Essen, in 2002, out of 172,600 university graduates, 18.8% received an engineering diploma, 12% a mathematics diploma, 9% a chemistry diploma, and only 8% a physics diploma. Therefore, the country is strongly interested in the influx of foreign scientists. Currently, over 85,000 foreign mathematicians, chemists, and engineers work in Germany, which is about 6% of the labor market for such specialists in EU countries. Compared with 1994, the number of scientists attracted by German companies to work doubled in 2000, but only 11% of them came from countries outside the European Union.
To be continued.
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