Hugo Horta

Navel Gazing: Academic Inbreeding and Scientific Productivity

The practice of having Ph.D. graduates employed by the university that trained them, commonly called “academic inbreeding,” has long been suspected to be damaging to scholarly practices and achievement. Despite this perception, existing work on academic inbreeding is scarce and mostly exploratory. Using data from Mexico, we find evidence that, first, academic inbreeding is associated with lower scholarly output. Second, the academically inbred faculty is relatively more centered on its own institution and less open to the rest of the scientific world. This navel-gazing tendency is a critical driver of its reduced scientific output when compared with noninbred faculties. Third, we reveal that academic inbreeding could be the result of an institutional practice, such that these faculty members contribute disproportionately more to teaching and outreach activities, which allows noninbred faculty members to dedicate themselves to the research endeavor. Thus, a limited presence of inbreds can benefit the research output of noninbreds and potentially the whole university, but a dominantly inbred environment will stifle productivity, even for noninbreds. Overall, our analysis suggests that administrators and policy makers in developing nations who aim to develop a thriving research environment should consider mechanisms to limit this practice.

An output perspective on the teaching-research nexus: an analysis focusing on the United States higher education system

This empirical study demonstrates that teaching and research can be leveraged synergistically and contribute to research outputs. In particular, it is critical to consider the nature of the learning environment associated with the teaching effort. First, by distinguishing between graduate and undergraduate education, the authors conclude that involvement in graduate teaching can play a significant role in driving research output. Moreover, both undergraduate and graduate students can provide a valuable contribution to the productivity of faculty members if integrated in research activities where teaching and research are combined within a learning perspective.

Does competitive research funding encourage diversity in higher education

Based on the evolution of higher education systems in the last 50 years, this paper discusses the use of research funding mechanisms as privileged instruments to maintain and foster diversity in higher education systems. We suggest that competitive research funding supported by non-standardised evaluative processes may enable differentiation among institutions according to their resources and capabilities to develop research, while also recognising the limit to the use of such policy instruments. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Science and Technology in Portugal: From Late Awakening to the Challenge of Knowledge-Integrated Communities

The evolution over time of science and technology (ST (2) the need to diversify, differentiating the role of public and private funding for science, whilst preserving the integrity of research institutions; (3) the recognition that S&T requires both stability and the ongoing commitment of people and institutions. In recent years, of OECD Member States, Portugal showed one of the highest S&T growth rates. In 2009, related investment reached 1.71% of GDP as against just 0.8% in 2005 and less than 0.4% in late 1980s. If further sustainability and maturity are to be achieved as too, an effective socioeconomic impact, Portugal needs to maintain its S&T investment. Strengthening linkages between S&T and higher education is critical to the latter’s continued modernisation.

Higher Education Research in Hong Kong, Japan, China, and Malaysia: Exploring Research Community Cohesion and the Integration of Thematic Approaches.

This article analyzes higher education research published in international higher education journals by researchers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Malaysia from 1980 to 2013. It does so based on publication counts, and co-authorship and cross-citation mapping, examining these countries’ publication patterns in terms of thematic approach and community cohesion. The results show that each country has experienced distinct evolutions of higher education research, both in terms of the number of publications and thematic diversity. The research organization analyzed by co-authorship networks shows that higher education researchers in Hong Kong tend more to integrate two higher education research approaches – teaching and learning, and policy studies – into their research work. It is also in Hong Kong where most higher education researchers focus their research on both teaching and learning, and policy topics. Higher education researchers in China, Japan, and Malaysia are more thematically specialized in terms of both their positioning and their co-authorship preference. These findings suggest that a broader integration of different thematic areas may be linked more to path-dependent and contextual characteristics than to differences related to the development stage of higher education systems. This is confirmed by the cross-citation analysis, which shows that higher education researchers based in Hong Kong tend to cite each other more frequently than do those based in Japan, China, and Malaysia, suggesting a much greater community cohesion in Hong Kong than in these other countries. The findings highlight that while the maturity of a higher education system influences community cohesion, other factors influence thematic leaning and integration.

Mobility, formation and development of the academic profession in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in East and South East Asia

ABSTRACT The academic profession contributes to shaping the capacity and identity of higher education systems. In East and Southeast Asia, there is a need for further discussion on the regional identity characteristics of the academic profession to account for its multiple origins and national and international dimensions. Data from two large-scale comparative surveys and secondary sources are used to investigate the role of international mobility in the formation and development of East and Southeast Asian academics in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Based on Kim and Lockes [2010. “Transnational Academic Mobility and the Academic Profession.” In Higher Education and Society: A Research Report. London: CHERI, Open University] framework, patterns of academic mobility are examined in relation to the formation and development of higher education systems. The analysis shows mixed trends in the international flow of academics and the formation of the regions academic profession in relation to more or less independent or colonial historical backgrounds. Recent globalisation and regionalisation initiatives seem likely to transform the heterogeneous identities of the regions academic profession.

PhD funding as a determinant of PhD and career research performance

This article focuses on the effects of PhD funding on research performance both during the degree and throughout researchers’ careers as measured through publications and citations. This analysis draws from a representative sample of researchers holding a doctorate based in Portugal and finds that those funded by grants during the PhD perform better than the self-funded ones. It also finds that different PhD funding sources produce different outcomes. PhD grants positively affect research performance during the PhD and throughout the career, when compared with research project grants. We argue that the latter funding scheme has more limited effects because of the constraints typical of early stage researchers involved in research project dynamics.

The generational gap of science: a dynamic cluster analysis of doctorates in an evolving scientific system

The features of science and technology (S&T) systems change over time. Simultaneously, at an individual level, the characteristics of actors in these systems also change concomitantly. In this study, the characteristics of doctorates in a changing S&T system are analyzed. This is performed by a series of cluster analyses on doctorates—with the goal of identifying shifting profiles—in strategic periods spanning three decades, which represents milestones in an evolving S&T system. A series of archetypal profiles of doctorates are identified, including changes to the relative weights of each of them, along with a pattern of alternating convergence and divergence over time on the characteristics of these doctorates.

Introduction to a special issue: Academic knowledge production, diffusion and commercialization: policies, practices and perspectives

This special issue is a bridging effort to bring together science policy and academic research productivity analysis by focusing on knowledge production, diffusion and commercialization policies and practices. The discussion addresses two major issues: (1) the changing national science policies and their influence on knowledge management in universities; and (2) the impact of policies and organizational characteristics on academic knowledge production, diffusion and commercialization. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the key debates on the two issues as well as to present the articles included in the special issue. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Further Democratizing Latin America: Broadening Access to Higher Education and Promoting Science Policies Focused on the Advanced Training of Human Resources

We focus this paper on the conditions to build reliable science, technology and higher education systems in Latin America, based on international comparative studies, fi eldwork and interviews conducted over the last three years. The analysis shows that science can have a major role in furthering the democratization of society through public policies that foster opportunities to access knowledge and the advanced training of human resources. Broadening the social basis for higher education promotes the quali fi cation of the labour force and contributes decisively to social and economic development. The need to guarantee higher education diversity, strengthening scienti fi c institutions and investing in a strong science base, is deemed as critical, but goes far beyond policies centred on innovation and industry-science relationships. It requires adequate training and attraction of skilled people, as well as promoting scienti fi c and technological culture among society.