A Bibliometric Analysis of Foreign Academics in Turkish Research Universities

Year 2022, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 71 - 88, 31.12.2022

Cüneyt Belenkuyu

https://doi.org/10.55993/hegp.1139187

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Academic mobility has begun to be discussed more frequently in higher education literature with more internationalized higher education. Since the flow of talent generally occurs from the periphery to the core, it is seen that studies mostly deal with either foreign researchers in developed countries or researchers returning to their developing home countries. However, this study aims to examine the mobility of foreign academics in a reverse direction. Specific to research universities in Turkey, foreign academics' demographic information, academic qualifications, and contributions to their universities were examined with a bibliometric analysis. The findings were also discussed within the legal framework determined by Turkish authorities regarding the employment of foreign academics. The findings show that (i) the proportion of foreign academics with and without a Ph.D. in research universities is close to each other, (ii) researchers are concentrated in the arts and humanities research, (iii) more than half of the academics have completed their doctoral studies in high-income economies, (iv) less than half of the researchers graduated from universities ranked in the top 500 list of THE World University Rankings, and (v) there is a variation among universities in their contributions to research, citation performance, and graduate counseling. In this respect, the results show that the majority of researchers at research universities are not directly employed with a research orientation, and the legal framework contains caveats that need to be explained for research universities.

Keywords

Academic mobility, Foreign academics, Research university, Human capital, Bibliometric analysis

References

• Agasisti, T., Yang, G. L., Song, Y. Y., & Tran, C. T. T. D. (2021). Evaluating the higher education productivity of Chinese and European “elite” universities using a meta-frontier approach. Scientometrics, 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03978-z
• Altaş, D., Sağırlı, M., & Giray, S. (2006). Yurtdışında çalışıp Türkiye'ye dönen akademisyenlerin eğitim durumları, gidiş ve dönüş sebepleri arasındaki ilişki yapısının loglineer modeller ile incelenmesi. Marmara Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 21(1), 401-421.
• Altbach, P. G. (2009). Peripheries and centers: Research universities in developing countries. Asia Pacific Education Review, 10(1), 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9000-9
• Altbach, P. G. (2013). Advancing the national and global knowledge economy: The role of research universities in developing countries. Studies in Higher Education, 38(3), 316-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.773222
• Arslan, K. (2020). Göçe zorlanmış akademisyenlerin Türk yükseköğretimine bakışı: fenomenolojik bir çözümleme. (Unpublished Masters’ Thesis). Karabük University, Turkey.
• Bastalich, W. (2017). Content and context in knowledge production: a critical review of doctoral supervision literature. Studies in Higher Education, 42(7), 1145-1157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1079702
• Bragg, A. K. (1976). The socialization process in higher education. (ERIC/AAHE Research Report, No. 7). American Association for Higher Education. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED132909.pdf
• Burford, J., Uerpairojkit, T., Eppolite, M., & Vachananda, T. (2019). Analysing the national and institutional policy landscape for foreign academics in Thailand: Opportunity, ambivalence and threat. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(4), 416-429. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1606881
• Chellaraj, G., Maskus, K. E., & Mattoo, A. (2008). The contribution of international graduate students to US innovation. Review of International Economics, 16(3), 444-462. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9396.2007.00714.x
• Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285-296.
• Elveren, A. Y. & Toksöz, G. (2018) Türkiye’de beyin göçü yazını ve bir alan araştırması.” In E. Karadoğan, G. Yenimahalleli Yaşar, N. Dertli, Ö. Millioğulları, K. Sebiha Kablay and T. Akpınar (Eds.), Gürhan Fişek’in izinde ortak emek ortak eylem (pp. 191–214). Ankara: Siyasal Kitabevi.
• European Commission. (2021, November 24). Gender gap at education level is shrinking, but women are still underrepresented in research and innovation [Press release]. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_6217
• Finkelstein, M. J., Walker, E., & Chen, R. (2013). The American faculty in an age of globalization: Predictors of internationalization of research content and professional networks. Higher Education, 66(3), 325-340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9607-3
• Foote, K. E., Li, W., Monk, J., & Theobald, R. (2008). Foreign-born scholars in US universities: Issues, concerns, and strategies. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(2), 167-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260701731322
• Gaviria-Marin, M., Merigo, J. M., & Popa, S. (2018). Twenty years of the Journal of Knowledge Management: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Knowledge Management. (22) 8, pp. 1655-1687. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2017-0497
• Gök, M. (2022). Türkiye’de yabancı akademisyen istihdamı, karşılaşılan sorunlar ve örnek mahkeme kararları [Employment of foreign academicians in Turkey, problems encountered and sample court decisions]. Alanya Akademik Bakış, 6(1), 1987-2015.
• Güngör, N. D., & Tansel, A. (2008). Brain drain from Turkey: The case of professionals abroad. International Journal of Manpower. 29(4), 323-347, DOI: 10.1108/01437720810884746
• Huang, F. (2018). Foreign faculty at Japanese universities: Profiles and motivations. Higher Education Quarterly, 72(3), 237-249. DOI: 10.1111/hequ.12167
• İpli̇k, E , & Yalçın, A . (2017). Birey-çevre uyumunun işe yönelik tutumlara etkisinde kültürel adaptasyonun rolü: Yabancı uyruklu akademisyenler üzerine bir araştırma [The role of cross-cultural adjustment on the influence of person-environment fit towards job attitudes: A study on self-initiated academic expatriates]. Uluslararası Ticaret ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi , 1 (2) , 121-137 . DOI: 10.30711/utead.36407.
• Jałowiecki, B., & Gorzelak, G. J. (2004). Brain drain, brain gain, and mobility: Theories and prospective methods. Higher Education in Europe, 29(3), 299-308. DOI: 10.1080/0379772042000331589
• Karadağ, E. (2021). Academic (dis) qualifications of Turkish rectors: Their career paths, H-index, and the number of articles and citations. Higher Education, 81(2), 301-323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00542-1
• Kehm, B. M. (2014). Global university rankings - Impacts and unintended side effects. European Journal of Education, 49(1), 102–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12064
• Kim, D., Twombly, S. B., Wolf-Wendel, L., & Belin, A. A. (2020). Understanding career mobility of professors: Does foreign-born status matter?. Innovative Higher Education, 45(6), 471-488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09513-x
• Kim, T. (2009). Transnational academic mobility, internationalization and interculturality in higher education. Intercultural education, 20(5), 395-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675980903371241
• Küçükaslan, Ö., Yerlikaya, N., & Yiğit, A. (2018). Contributions of foreign scientists to the Turkish veterinary medicine and animal husbandry in the Early Republican Period (1923-1933). Kafkas Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi, 24(1). 45-51. DOI: 10.9775/kvfd.2017.18257
• Lawson, C., Salter, A., Hughes, A., & Kitson, M. (2019). Citizens of somewhere: Examining the geography of foreign and native-born academics’ engagement with external actors. Research policy, 48(3), 759-774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.11.008
• Lee, J. T., & Kuzhabekova, A. (2018). Reverse flow in academic mobility from core to periphery: motivations of international faculty working in Kazakhstan. Higher Education, 76(2), 369-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0213-2
• Lin, Z., Pearce, R., & Wang, W. (2009). Imported talents: Demographic characteristics, achievement and job satisfaction of foreign born full time faculty in four-year American colleges. Higher Education, 57(6), 703-721. DOI 10.1007/s10734-008-9171-z
• Ongiti, O. K. (2012). Professional socialization of graduate students: A give-and-take process. Business Management Dynamics, 1(10), 33-40.
• Öz, İ., & Laloğlu, P. (2018). Beyin göçü açısından yabancı uyruklu yükseköğretim elemanlarının kazanımı: Erzurum Atatürk Üniversitesi örneği [The foreign staff gaining in higher education in terms of brain drain: Erzurum Ataturk University sample]. Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 22(2), 1093-1112.
• Paul, A. M., & Long, V. (2016). Human-capital strategies to build world-class research universities in Asia. In M. Chou, I. Kamola, & T. Pietsch (Eds.), The transnational politics of higher education: Contesting the global/transforming the local, (pp. 130-155). Routledge.
• Pazarcık, S. F. (2010), Beyin göçü olgusu ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri üniversitelerinde çalışan Türk sosyal bilimciler üzerine bir çalışma, (Unpublished Masters’ Thesis). Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey.
• Rovito, S. M., Kaushik, D., & Aggarwal, S. D. (2021). The impact of international scientists, engineers, and students on US research outputs and global competitiveness. MIT Science Policy Review, 2, 15-25. https://doi:org/10:38105/spr:v079rp249k
• Salmi, J. (2009). The challenge of establishing world-class universities. World Bank Publications.
• Seggie, F. N., & Çalıkoğlu, A. (2021). Changing patterns of international academic mobility: The experiences of Western-origin faculty members in Turkey. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1868975
• Shin, J. C. (2009). Building world-class research university: The Brain Korea 21 project. Higher Education, 58(5), 669.
• Teichler, U. (2015). Academic mobility and migration: What we know and what we do not know. European Review, 23(S1), 6-37. doi:10.1017/S1062798714000787
• Tunçağıl Gümüşlü, G. (2019). Yabancıların Türkiye'de eğitim hizmetinde çalışması [The working conditions of foreigners in the educational service in the scope of international labour law]. Hacettepe Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(1), 68-109. DOI: 10.32957/hacettepehdf.542280
• Van Holm, E. J., Wu, Y., & Welch, E. W. (2019). Comparing the collaboration networks and productivity of China-born and US-born academic scientists. Science and Public Policy, 46(2), 310-320. doi: 10.1093/scipol/scy060
• Webber, K. L. (2013). Research productivity of science and engineering faculty at US universities: The contribution of foreign vs. US-born status. The Journal of the Professoriate, 7(1), 51-84.
• Webber, K. L., & Yang, L. (2014). The increased role of foreign-born academic staff in US higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 36(1), 43-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2013.844671
• Yuret, T. (2017). An analysis of the foreign-educated elite academics in the United States. Journal of Informetrics, 11(2), 358-370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.02.008