Emergent structures in faculty hiring networks, and the effects of mobility on academic performance

Abstract

This paper is about the South African job market for PhDs. PhD to first job mobility involves the preferences of both the hiring institution and the candidate. Both want to make the best choice and here institutional prestige plays a crucial role. A university's prestige is an emergent property of hiring interactions, so we use a network perspective to measure it. Using this emergent ordering, we compare the subsequent scientific performance of scholars with different changes in the prestige hierarchy. We ask how movements between universities of different prestige from PhD to first job correlates with academic performance. We use data of South African scholars from 1970 to 2012 and we find that those who make large movements in terms of prestige have lower research ratings than those who do not. Further, looking only those with large prestige movements, those with higher prestige PhDs or first jobs have higher research ratings throughout their careers.

The world-systemic network of global elite sociology: the western male monoculture at faculties of the top one-hundred sociology departments of the world

“…Instead of being a purely meritocratic selection process (Merton 1968), hiring turned out to be a social procedure full of nonmeritocratic factors (Clauset et al 2015). Many researchers ascertained, for example, that the prestige of being affiliated with a given candidate's Ph.D. school could determinate her chances for a tenure track position to a much greater extent than her productivity would (Baldi 1994;Burris 2004;Clauset et al 2015;Cowan and Rossello 2018;Cret and Musselin 2010;Enders 2001;Long et al 1979;Maliniak et al 2018;Smith et al 2004;Tomlinson and Freeman 2018;Williamson and Cable 2003). The function that the prestige of the alma mater plays in the career trajectories of future academics is extraordinarily strong: Burris showed that "the prestige of the department in which an academic received a Ph.D. consistently ranks as the most important factor in determining the employment opportunities available to those entering the academic labor market" (Burris 2004: 239).…”

“…the university where its Ph.D. graduate applies for a position, because it considers this university to be worth working for. In short, this bilateral positive assessment allows top universities to establish a top-tier core while excluding the rest (Clauset et al 2015;Cowan and Rossello 2018;Maliniak et al 2018). The second motivation behind this phenomenon is the assumption that the prestige of the candidates' Ph.D. institution and mentor will positively affect the future productivity of its applicants (Cret and Musselin 2010).…”

“…In conclusion, we can add to well-known factors, serious disadvantages such as non-Anglophone origin (Anderson 2013; Curry and Lillis 2018; Thompson and Diani 2015) or a working-class family background (Ball et al 2003;McDonough and Fann 2007). Research shows that not being educated at one of the top-tier universities is a drawback that is extraordinarily hard to tide over (Bourdieu 1996;Cowan and Rossello 2018;Gerhards et al 2017). Researchers also observed that the ruling elite systematically build and maintain an educational system by which the candidates from lower classes are purposely excluded from top positions.…”

Academic Profession in Chile: Perspectives From an International Survey

“…Así, las instancias gubernamentales e institucionales generan políticas, iniciativas e incentivos para aumentar capacidades de producción científica (Altbach & Salmi, 2011). Para los académicos y académicas esto se entiende como una priorización en tiempo y recursos hacia la investigación, y sus resultados como esenciales para los procesos de contratación y promoción en la carrera académica (Cowan & Rossello, 2018;Rosinger, Taylor, Coco & Slaughter, 2016).…”

Buscando un trabajo académico: un análisis exploratorio de las relaciones entre clase social de origen de los académicos y redes de contratación en universidades chilenas.

“…A large number of studies across multiple countries show the existence of academic hiring networks operating within the larger framework of stratified higher education systems. Faculty 3 who studied in the most prestigious academic departments in their respective disciplinary fields are the ones who end up securing tenure-track positions at equally prestigious academic departments (for Chile, see Celis & Kim, 2018; for the USA, see Burris, 2004;Clauset, Arbesman, & Larremore, 2015;Hadani, Coombes, Das, & Jalajas, 2012;Headworth & Freese, 2016; for France, Germany, and the USA, see Musselin, 2009; for South Africa, see Cowan & Rossello, 2018).…”