Young New Zealanders leave in great numbers to experience the wider world. Many return, but some stay overseas, giving rise periodically to concern that the country is losing its best and brightest. With the introduction of a student loans scheme, many graduates left to earn more money and repay their loans more quickly. The government was initially reluctant to admit that the outflow was anything more than had been happening for years but, as this cartoon shows, it eventually acknowledged that the loans scheme was contributing to a ‘brain drain’.