Academic Mobility: Volume 11

In response to a dearth of research on the experience of non-UK nationals in UK universities, this chapter reports on a qualitative study involving 40 international academics, including lecturers, senior lecturers and professors, who, within the past five years, had moved to the United Kingdom, specifically Scotland, to join a research-intensive university there, offering a rich account of what it means to be an international academic and live in Scotland. The aim of the project was to identify the challenges and opportunities these international academics perceived, as well as the contributions they saw themselves as making to the host institution and society, and to derive from these findings some recommendations to inform internationalisation policies and practices. The authors observe that international staff encounter a variety of challenges and conclude that the economic benefits expected to accrue from recruiting greater numbers of international academics are unlikely to materialize if star researchers become unhappy with the situation they enter into and consider leaving. Moreover, if internationalisation is to include at least an element of interculturality, then it is essential to capitalise more heavily on international academics’ prior cultural and work-related knowledge and intentionally promote intercultural exchanges of practices, values and ideals.

This chapter identifies factors influencing doctoral candidates’ mobility plans based on empirical studies as well as theories of social inequality and migration. The relative importance of the identified factors is assessed through a series of linear and logistic regressions, which are calculated based on data from a 2010 online survey of doctoral candidates employed at German universities. The theoretical considerations are mostly confirmed: mobility experiences during the previous studies and during the doctorate mobilise doctoral candidates to plan further research periods abroad. Moreover, contextual factors play an important role. For instance, working in an internationalised institutional environment and having regular contact with academics abroad increase the likelihood of developing mobility plans. Regarding social factors, age turns out to be negatively associated with mobility plans. Parenthood also affects mobility plans negatively, but only among female doctoral candidates. Contrary to the hypothesis, we do not find that a high social background significantly increases the likelihood of planning a research period abroad.

This chapter presents an analysis of the lived experiences of academic mobility for three educational researchers, at various stages of their research career, from different European national contexts. Lived experiences were explored by examining the metaphors used by each educational researcher to convey their experiences of academic mobility. These metaphors were then explored in further depth via individual interviews. The purpose of this analysis is to extend the debate around academic mobility, which often fails to differentiate between academic mobility and mobile academics. In addition, this chapter explores the impact of the desire for, and experience of, academic mobility on the complex, hybrid and changing process of academic identity formation. In conclusion, the chapter questions whether conventional ideas of research in the social sciences and humanities are essentially connected in one way or another to the nation state, or whether research is fundamentally an international occupation.

Exploring the personal and professional implications of academic mobility, with a special emphasis on the influence of gender, is essential for our understanding of career development in higher education. This chapter focuses on the subjective experiences around career and professional performance of a group of ‘mobilized’ academics. Through data analysis we have found that both gender and cultural factors were mediating in the careers of the participants. Specifically, mobility has an impact on the curriculum and was perceived as a facilitator of career advancement, but also meant costs, especially at personal and family level, but also institutional.

This chapter explores the migration decisions and motives of a group of academics who were recruited to three Australian higher education institutions during the period 1965–2003. The chapter furthers our understanding of historical patterns of academic mobility and the experience of academic mobility and adds to our understanding of the academic profession. The research used a micro approach to migration history and focussed on academic migrants’ decision-making processes. The research used semi-structured interviews with three groups of academics who were interviewed in 1982 and 2003. The academic migrants in this research were not committed to any particular institution or curriculum. What was most important in their migration decision was simply obtaining any academic position. Many, if not most of them, owed their academic careers to the growth in Australian higher education caused by its transition from an elite to a mass system. They obtained their academic posts because of the global nature of academic work. The question that arises from this study is what Australian universities will need to do to attract a new generation of academics as they compete in a global market for academic personnel.

The internationalisation of academia has significantly altered the higher education environment. Interactions between academic staff and students from a range of social, political and cultural backgrounds are now commonplace. Within this context, it is important to explore the professional and personal impact of internationalisation on academics and academic environments. This chapter synthesises the global literature on academic mobility and migration through the lens of personal reflections by three international academics at an Australian-based university. The reflections focus on the complexities of transitioning to a new academic environment, the unique challenges often encountered by international academics, and how these impact on their teaching and research experiences as well as on their professional identity. The nature of the adjustments and changes in lifestyle that academics make when transitioning to an overseas academic environment are explored, with reference to implications for future developments in academic mobility.

The tertiary education system has become an international phenomenon in recent decades, and, increasingly, Australian institutions are employing academic staff and postgraduate students from other countries. This now poses a number of challenges. International academics are reporting that cultural differences and stresses are impacting on their work. This has required an examination of both curricula and assessment practices in the tertiary sphere. Having academic staff from diverse backgrounds working in tertiary institutions arouses interesting patterns of interaction with other personnel, students, learning materials and learning contexts. This chapter examines a large number of international academics from Non-English Speaking Background (NESB), who are working in various Australian university faculties and disciplines. The study analyses the key factors influencing the NESB international academics’ employment. Seventy-five participants working in six Australian universities participated in this study.

This chapter analyses interviews with 13 African scholars from a range of countries who are currently working at a South African university. The interviews explore aspects of their migration journeys and the role that language, particularly the English language, has played in their mobility. The majority of the participants originate from English-speaking African countries, and are fluent English speakers. English is currently the international language of the academy, and English fluency can almost be seen as a prerequisite for an international academic career. The driving question behind this research is what have these African highly skilled academic migrants gained and lost from English in terms of their mobility, careers and identities? The participants show complex orientations towards the medium. On the one hand, English is recognised as an enabling medium for international success in academia, and for career and educational opportunities aboard. On the other hand, participants perceive that the emphasis on the English medium has negative effects on their relationships with their home languages and their home countries. The research raises questions about the role of English in higher education in Africa.

This study gathers the experiences of a group of academics who have chosen to take up temporary residence in the United Arab Emirates. It explores, from the perspective of the academic, the move from the familiar to the unfamiliar, determines the challenges they faced and what factors assisted in their integration into this new environment. The findings demonstrate that fundamentally, this desire to improve their situation drives the decision to relocate and provides the motivation to overcome the many challenges such a move entails. Those interviewed believed that expatriates are different and possess certain qualities which have helped them adapt. The differences identified were that they were able to find some inner strength or draw on previous learning so as to be able to reconceptualise the issue and find a way to mentally or physically address it. These academics had found a way to undertake a sociocultural reconceptualisation in order to make sense of the new world around them. These findings are from a limited study and begin to reveal insightful meanings to the movement and mobility of academics.

Most studies of foreign-born faculty have documented various difficulties in their careers in academic institutions. This chapter offers data regarding the successful careers of foreign-born faculty in the Israeli academic world and identifies the factors that contributed to this success. Our data are based on several measures for success of foreign-born faculty in the studied institution. A statistical analysis was performed in order to examine to what degree scoring on various excellence criteria distinguishes between foreign- and native-born faculty. The research reveals that foreign-born faculty have succeeded in reaching impressive academic achievements. Five complementary explanations for the successful integration are presented, with the most crucial being in-group ethno-cultural similarity of faculty who immigrated from the same country. We conclude by discussing managerial implications for the successful integration of foreign-born faculty in higher education institutions.

Prior studies of academics’ career migration patterns typically focused on middle- and upper-class faculty. The “push/pull” or “hard/soft” factors relevant to faculty from more privileged groups emerged from those analyses. This phenomenological study used qualitative interviews with 12 faculty members from lower social-class backgrounds to discover variables unique to this group. Due to lifelong differences in basic resources and limited access to educational opportunities, as well as adherence to class-based values, faculty from lower social-class backgrounds made career decisions based primarily on financial and family needs rather than the variables found in earlier studies. In order to paint a complete picture of factors that enter into the career-decision-making process, studies examining the mobility of academics must consider inclusion of faculty from lower social-class origins.

Scholarly excellence in higher education depends in part on the ability of members of the academic community to be able to travel abroad, to return home and to move freely within a state for the purposes of study, teaching and research. Articles 12 and 13 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 protect the right to freedom of movement and the right of aliens not to be arbitrarily expelled from a state, respectively. Any person may rely on these provisions to claim various stated entitlements related to freedom of movement. International human rights law does not, however, offer (clear) protection where an alien wishes to enter a state. It appears, however, that Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, prohibiting discrimination on the ground of, amongst other things, ‘political or other opinion’, may be relied on to prevent states from restricting the entry of scholars solely on the basis of the academic opinions they hold or views they have expressed. The right to freedom of movement of scholars – conceived as a right to academic mobility – forms a part of the right to academic freedom. International human rights law does not accord express protection to this right. Whereas the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights may be relied on to protect a multitude of facets covered by the right to academic freedom, Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 on the right to education may, in fact, be seen to constitute a complete locus for the right to academic freedom.