Faculty research productivity: differences between foreign and local doctoral degree holders in Pakistan

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Faculty research productivity: differences between foreign and local doctoral degree holders in Pakistan Niamatullah Baloch1,2 · Luo Siming2 · Ataklti Abraha2 · Shen Hong2 Accepted: 16 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020

Abstract The presence of foreign doctoral degree holders has significantly been increasing in Pakistani public universities. Despite their increasing presence and significance in universities, they have been ignored in higher education literature, notably the absence of empirical studies exploring their research productivity. This study aimed to explore research productivity differences between foreign and local doctoral degree holders and determine the factors (demographic, individual, and institutional) that contribute to their research productivity. Data were collected from 14 Pakistani public universities through a self-administered questionnaire using a systematic random sampling method. A total of 241 questionnaires were returned, among which 232 well-filled and completed questionnaires (foreign (119) and local (113), respectively) were used for analysis. The findings showed that foreign doctoral degree holders were not more productive in terms of total refereed journal articles and book chapters than local doctoral degree holders. However, foreign doctoral degree holders had published statistically significant research articles in international journals with impact factors and published more research articles with international colleagues than their local doctoral counterparts. Moreover, the findings showed that unlike the institutional factors, demographic and individual factors had significantly contributed to faculty research productivity in Pakistani public universities. Further implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined. Keywords  Foreign doctoral degree holders · Local doctoral degree holders · Research productivity · Differences · Pakistani public universities * Niamatullah Baloch [email protected] * Luo Siming [email protected] Ataklti Abraha [email protected] Shen Hong [email protected] 1

Faculty of Education, Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences (LUAWMS), Balochistan 90050, Pakistan

2

School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China



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Higher Education

Introduction Over the past several decades, higher education (HE) has been in constant change (Altbach 2008, 1989, 1999; Barnett 1990; Geiger 1986). HE systems have undergone dramatic structural transformation worldwide due to ever-rising demands of a knowledge-based economy and importantly made HE produce highly qualified human resources to strengthen national and international competitiveness (Welch 2011). Altbach and Peterson (2007) noticed that the early twenty-first century was the “perfect storm” of external pressures and internal responses to a significant transformation in HE. A comprehensive and determined transformation of Pakistani HE in 2002, after startling disc