Mobility and inbreeding in the heart of Europe. What factors predict academic career in Dutch -speaking Belgian universities? Marco Seeber 1

Noëmi Debacker 2

Karen Vandevelde 2

1 Department of Sociology, Ghent University marco.seeber@ugent.be 2 ECOOM, Research department, Ghent University

OECD BLUE SKY IIIGhent 20th September 2015

Researchers’ MOBILITY is beneficial but it is not always an asset for academic careers

Apparently: highly attractive systems open: mobility in an asset (US)

weakly attractive systems closed: mobility is not an asset (MEX, ES)

Yet, highly attractive system can be “closed” (Sweden, Belgium)

GOAL: better understand what conditions make mobility an asset for a researcher career ? context: Flemish university system

Mobility and inbreeding in academia

QUEUE models: employers rank applicants and applicants rank job offers

Longer queues of applicants for High Reputed universities in High Attractive countries more foreigners the academic body is more mobile (Lepori, Seeber, Bonaccorsi 2015)

Assumption: the best applicant are hired

YET, why is there a large difference between the % of foreign staff at junior and senior level?

Hiring process in academia

Foreign senior and junior staff

Hypotheses Does Hiring work differently for Junior and Senior positions? In general, there is a homophile bias in hiring Yet Senior positions also have power Professorial body as an academic Oligarchy Oligarchies have the tendency to preserve their internal

homogeneity in terms of value congruence and social similarity. Therefore we expect:

1. female, mobile and foreign researchers less frequently appointed than males, inbred and nationals

2. The difference is larger for higher ranks, namely for professors than postdocs positions

Context, data and methods

Flemish university system. Five universities.

HRRF dataset 1990-2013; we consider researchers born after 1964 (N=52,908)

Descriptive and Inferential statistics (multilevel regression)

Dependent Variable Career outcome: appointed or not in Flemish HE system (0/1)

Independent variables Career track: non-mobile, internal mobile, external mobileGenderNationality/Language group

ControlsScientific discipline, Age starting postdoc, pregnancy leave, prestige of postdoc institution

Results – descriptive statistics

PhD graduates Postdoc probability ratio gap

Female 6679 2501 37% 0,93 -7%Male 9751 3910 40%

Non-Belgian 3639 626 17% 0,38 -62%Belgian 12735 5783 45%

Postdoc Professors probability ratio gapFemale 3149 301 10% 0,71 -29%Male 5485 740 13%

Non-Belgian 3.147 70 2% 0,13 -87%Belgian 5.487 971 18%

External mobile 3192 80 3% 0,14 -86%Internal mobile 429 56 13% 0,72 -28%Non mobile 5013 905 18%

Probability of postdoc to become professorMultilevel regression: Beta coefficients

sign.proportion of

probabilitydelta %

probabilityexternal mobile vs non mobile *** 0,26 -74%external mobile vs internal mobile *** 0,41 -59%

gender Female vs Male *** 0,60 -40% Netherland vs Belgium * 0,55 -45% Europe vs Belgium *** 0,40 -60% North America & Oceania vs Belgium 0,37 -63% South America, Asia, Africa vs Belgium *** 0,21 -79% Humanities vs Medicine *** 2,20 120% Social sciences vs Medicine *** 2,52 152% Engineering vs Medicine * 0,79 -21% Natural sciences vs Medicine *** 0,66 -34%

0,98 -2%Pregnancy leave Yes vs No 0,77 -23%

University reputation High vs Low 1,05 5%

career path

nationality

discipline

Age Start Postdoc (grand mean) : + 1 year

Results – descriptive statistics

Results – longitudinal variations

Conclusions

Hypotheses are not rejected: male, national, inbred researchers have been appointed more frequently compared to female, foreign, mobile peers. effects are stronger for hiring at professorial level

Limitations: performance, willingness to return to home country

Implications:When is mobility an asset? Importance of norms and rules. Competition is not enoughFreedom to move but not equal opportunities?Future research:Do collegial decision making matter on this regard?External members in the committee can impact?

Thanks for your attention!

Questions, suggestions, comments… welcome !

OECD BLUE SKY IIIGhent 20th September 2015