This paper presents an overview of the problems that hinder improvement of the quality of education in Yemen, with a particular focus on higher education institutions. It discusses in particular the problem of the brain drain and why this phenomenon is occurring in Yemen. Semi-structured interviews with three professors at higher education institutions were conducted. Analysis identified two main factors that compel many Yemeni professors to leave the country. The first is associated with lack of fairness and respect among instructors in Yemeni universities; the second is concerned with the instructors' deep dissatisfaction with their financial income. It is argued that unless the university administrators and the government as a whole reconsider the salaries of those in both secondary and higher education institutions, and provide and impose rigorous rules for regulating academic life inside and outside the institutions, many other instructors will leave Yemen, their country of origin, action which will cause further weaknesses in the nation's higher education institutions.