‘Are you crazy? Why are you going to Poland?’ Migration of Western Scholars to Academic Peripheries

Kurek-Ochmańska, Olga; Łuczaj, Kamil

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.12.001

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…According to the author, in some countries with “peripheral academic systems”, only highly motivated academics decide to migrate for personal reasons (for example, a spouse), background (for example, interest in post-communist politics), or a lack of other options (Luczaj, 2019, 2022b). These reasons constitute “push factors” or “critical motives” (Kurek-Ochmańska and Luczaj, 2021), but pull factors include: stability, a less-competitive environment and cultural proximity (Luczaj, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies (Kurek-Ochmańska and Luczaj, 2021) focused on the geographic specificity of a career, showing that academic peripheries are attractive destinations for so-called “midlevel prestige professors” (as opposed to the “elite academics”). These destinations are perceived as less innovative in research and worse in quality of teaching (Luczaj 2022a, b), causing a specific geographic location to potentially lead to a “herd effect” (Bokek-Cohen and Davidovitch, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expatriate academics: what have we known for four decades? A systematic literature review

Przytuła¹

2023

JGM

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PurposeThe main objective of this paper is twofold: to analyse the progress of a research stream concerning expatriate academics in the last four decades and to make recommendations for further studies in this field.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the systematic literature review (SLR) concerning expatriate academics was applied. The search embraced the period from 1980–2022. The review was performed in two interdisciplinary electronic databases: Web of Science and Scopus. The selection process of papers was conducted in steps, as recommended by the PRISMA protocol. The total pool of articles received after the exclusion criteria was 110. The content of each paper was thus extracted and categorised in Excel file: author, year of publication, tittle of article, journal, theory applied, research method, sample size, country/field of investigation.FindingsFor almost three decades this topic was almost absent in the literature of the subject. The most active publication period started from 2009 and since then there have been two “waves” of published articles devoted to expatriate academics: 2009–2014 and 2017–2021. The significant number of studies appeared in Journal of Global Mobility followed by Personnel Review, IJHRM, Higher Education. The thematic analysis revealed six themes which have been already researched on expatriates academics: (1) motives, (2) adjustment, (3) job factors and work outcomes, (4) academic missions, (5) academic career, (6) women and men in academia.Practical implicationsPractitioners and university management might find this article useful as the article allows to manage this pool of international academics more efficiently with mutual benefits for expatriates and organisations. This study may assist the university authorities to develop systemic approach to attract foreign academics; adjust the same in work and culture domain through effective training; support in organisational, financial and career field; create the performance criteria of expatriate work related to three missions: research, teaching and service; introduce metrics and indicators to evaluate the contribution and work outcomes of foreign scientists into the host university.Originality/valueThis review shows that there are many new perspectives and models through which the academic expatriation can be analysed. This paper gives an insight into the academic literature on academics expatriates. The paper is innovative and has contributed to research by doing an SLR in a new area (academic expats) and tackling all the areas that has been covered by academic research so far. New research directions have been recommended for future research, to open the field further.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expatriate academics: what have we known for four decades? A systematic literature review

Przytuła¹

2023

JGM

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“…Noticeably, while students and academics are still moving to the traditional host countries, there has been a reversed direction of mobility to other countries like China, Poland, and Turkey (e.g. Kurek-Ochmańska & Luczaj, 2021 ; Nevra Seggie & Calikoglu, 2021 ; Xu et al, 2022 ). These differences and changes mean that while international academic mobility can be explored as a global phenomenon, the research on this topic needs to be contextualised and grounded in different realities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconceptualising international academic mobility in the global knowledge system: towards a new research agenda

Song

Wang

2022

High Educ

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The cross-border movement of people in higher education has been attracting scholarly attention for decades, but the definition of ‘international academic mobility’ bears ambiguities. This article reviews the literature on international academic mobility published in the journal Higher Education and beyond. By bridging the literature on international academic mobility from higher education studies and other disciplines, this article proposes to redefine international academic mobility, which highlights the integration of both international student mobility and international faculty mobility. Furthermore, this article outlines a new conceptual framework and research agenda, on the role of international academic mobility in the national, regional, and global knowledge systems. The framework highlights the relationship between international academic mobility and worldwide knowledge acquisition, production, transfer, circulation, networks, and the geopolitics of science. The article also proposes further methodologies for future research on international academic mobility.

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“…The study thus contributes to the literature on skilled migration to the peripheries. This new empirical material fills the knowledge gap, since the majority of existing studies focus on individual motivations (Luczaj, 2020; Kurek-Ochmanska and Luczaj, 2021), and the perspective of institutions is often neglected, restricted to the analysis of statistical data (Luczaj and Bahna, 2021) or limited to exploratory studies (Mucha and Luczaj, 2018). This analysis can thus open up a debate on the institutional side of the academic migration process.…”

Section: Introduction: From Brain Drain To Brain Circulation and Reve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional motivations for hiring international academics in Poland

Łuczaj

Kurek-Ochmańska

2021

IJEM

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to uncover the basic motivations of the administrators (referred to also as “managers”) to hire foreign-born employees in the academic system, which is relatively ethnically homogenous and where the proficiency in Polish is still a strong asset. By doing this, the authors make an attempt to theorise the value of internationalisation of higher education in the academic peripheries.Design/methodology/approachThis study reports the finding of 20 qualitative interviews with the deans and other senior academic officials serving managerial functions at Polish public and private universities.FindingsThe four basic motivations expressed directly by the mangers were (1) the crave for cultural diversity, (2) willingness to “Westernize” the academe, (3) a need for academic achievement and (4) staff shortages. In the discussion, the authors show, however, that the discursive order of these institutional motivations to hire international faculty is incompatible with motivations of international faculty to seek employment in Poland and statistical data regarding their concentration in different academic centres.Originality/valueThe paper tackles crucial issues regarding staffing (including recruitment and retention) and diversity hiring in a country with an “emigration culture”, similar to other East European states, namely a place from which highly skilled workers emigrate. A relocation to Poland is a rather unusual reverse migration, or “stepping down”, to a periphery to use it as a possible stepping stone for career progression.

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‘Are you crazy? Why are you going to Poland?’ Migration of Western Scholars to Academic Peripheries

Cited by 7 publications

References 44 publications

Expatriate academics: what have we known for four decades? A systematic literature review

Expatriate academics: what have we known for four decades? A systematic literature review

Reconceptualising international academic mobility in the global knowledge system: towards a new research agenda

Institutional motivations for hiring international academics in Poland

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