Abstract:

For decades, education has generally been viewed as an effective instrument for social mobility. Education has become an easy way to proper insertion in the labor market. However in Portugal, since the late 2010s the situation is the reverse and the country faces an increasing number of university graduates who do not get any recognition by the market and which thickens the ranks of unemployed in the country. Simultaneously, many thousands of higher education graduates, including doctoral ones seek emigration in the achievement of its objectives, have adequate work to their academic qualification, leading to an exodus of labor, highly skilled. A real brain drain is occurring in the country.

Based on official data on unemployment of graduates, including by scientific areas and ages, and the highly skilled emigration, this article questions the employability of different scientific areas of higher education, analyses brain drain situation and discuss the educational and economic policies that generate a real brain drain abroad.

Keywords:

Higher education, employability, brain drain.