Returnee Chinese researchers ‘unfairly privileged’ in hiring

Chinese academics with overseas study and research experience are treated more favourably than their domestic peers, resulting in inequality in development opportunities, a study says.

Based on interviews with 36 senior academics, the paper points out that although policies designed to help institutions attract and retain returnee scholars help improve China’s research competitiveness and internationalisation, they “privilege” returnees in hiring, salary, funding and promotion decisions.

Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology report that some top universities now recruit only returnee scholars and offer them flexibly structured salary packages. The “green channel” dedicated to returnees also allows for “exceptional promotion”, while domestic talent must compete under the traditional career ladder, the study says.

“After gaining a PhD in China, it takes three to four years to be promoted to associate professor; if you obtained an overseas PhD, you could be a professor after three years. This is very unfair,” one interviewee said.

Referring to previous research, the authors suggest that the “double standards” at many institutions were motivated by a desire to boost university rankings by publishing in international journals.

The authors suggest that as a result, institutions assess candidates based on performance and contributions, rather than their “returnee identity”.

Another expert who was interviewed said: “You cannot set different starting points for graduates from top American universities and domestic universities. If so, who would want to stay in China for a PhD degree or postdoctoral research?”

The ways that institutions and education authorities treat returnee scholars have always been a focus of policy research, but there are differing opinions on the issue.

A 2020 study based on interviews with returnee scholars found that they struggled to deal with cultural gaps in aspects such as hiring, publishing and networking after joining a Chinese institution.

A 2019 study examined the profiles of 1,447 Chang Jiang Scholars – one of the most influential national talent programmes in China – and found that it took scholars with overseas experience longer to earn the honour.

“I do not think these findings are conflicting.” Lili Yang, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Global Higher Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford told Times Higher Education: “On the one hand, institutionally speaking, the government and higher education institutions have introduced policies to attract overseas Chinese diaspora, including the so-called ‘privileges’. However, on the other hand, the career development of individual researchers does not solely rely on ‘privileges’.”

“For example, many studies have pointed out that [social] connections with domestic academia are an important factor,” she added.

karen.liu@timeshighereducation.com