Academic Mobility

Does ERASMUS Student Mobility promote a European Identity? Emmanuel

by Emmanuel Sigalas

Laura Cruz-Castro; Luis Sanz-Menéndez (2010). “Mobility vs. job stability: Assessing tenure and productivity outcomes”. Research Policy 39(1), February 2010, pp.27-38,

by Luis Sanz-Menendez

"Published in "Research Policy" 39(1), February 2010, pp.27-38,

Based on the data from survey responses and publications of 1583 academic scientists in Spain, this paper examines the... more Based on the data from survey responses and publications of 1583 academic scientists in Spain, this paper examines the relationship between scientific performance and reward, considering tenure and permanent positions as key academic rewards in early phases of academic career and focusing especially on the mediating effect of mobile versus stable career paths. Although widely practiced, inbreeding has often been considered to be at odds with universalism and merit in science. Our findings indicate that inbred faculty does not get tenure with less scientific merits than PhDs from other institutions; we also find that non-mobile careers are a strong predictor of the timing of rewards in the form of early permanent positions. Our results question the assumption mainly based on US evidence that mobility enhances career. These findings must be interpreted in the context of organizational and institutional features of the Spanish academic system that promote the development of internal academic research job markets.

So Noxious a Premonition

by Mohamed Eno

Excerpted from my forthcoming volume Guilt of Otherness: A Brief Personal Memoir in Poetry

Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is... more Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is dedicated to all men and women academics who at some point in their professional life felt oppressed, frustrated or marginalized for one reason or another by the powers that be in their respective institutions.

Realising pedagogical potential of the Bologna Process third cycle

by Chris Trevitt

Developing the European Research Area: Improving Knowledge Flows via Researcher Mobility

by Ana Fernandez Zubieta

Recognition and weak ties. Is there a positive effect of postdoctoral positions in academic performance and career development?

by Ana Fernandez Zubieta

Research Evaluation, 18, 2, pp. 105-115

This article analyses the effect of researchers’ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. Postdoctoral positions... more This article analyses the effect of researchers’ postdoctoral mobility on academic performance. Postdoctoral positions are considered and conceptualised as a special type of researcher mobility. We use the curriculum vitae of UK academic scientists as a source of information, in addition to the ISI Web of Knowledge and the European Patent Office. We find major differences in the patterns of mobility between the pure and the transfer sciences. Pure scientists tend to move via a postdoctoral appointment, whereas transfer scientists tend to change job positions.
We find that international postdoctoral mobility is positively correlated with publications for non job-mobile pure scientists in a five-year period starting two years after completion of the PhD, and with the total number of citations. The explanation is that weak institutional ties connected with postdoctoral fellowships give researchers access to institutions with higher reputation, which in turn gives access to valuable knowledge and networks. This institutional advantage means that international postdoctoral mobility has a positive influence on academic performance. The lack of significance of the correlation between precocity and international postdoctoral mobility makes it impossible to determine whether international postdoctoral mobility is a non-early advantage with positive effects on a scientist’s productivity and career development.

Drivers of inequalities in Higher Education and the unexpected consequences of equality policies

by Marco Seeber

Higher Education Policy (2011)

The main argument of this paper is that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) perform differently and policies that do... more The main argument of this paper is that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) perform differently and policies that do not consider differences across HEIs are likely to increase inequalities. We test the hypothesis by analysing the case of Italian Universities and by using indicators of research quality. We find deep inequalities in research performance, which are strongly correlated to geographic location.
Moreover, we find that inequalities cannot be explained only by the weakness of the local economic context, since they are also strongly linked to the social context and to the adoption of policy measures that that do not address the peculiar features of the HEIs and the context in which they are located.

draft available below

Research Networks and Inventors’ Mobility as Drivers of Innovation: Evidence from Europe

by Ernest Miguelez

Ernest Miguélez & Rosina Moreno, re-submitted to Regional Studies

Abstract
We investigate the importance of the labour mobility of
inventors, as well as the scale, extent... more Abstract
We investigate the importance of the labour mobility of
inventors, as well as the scale, extent and density of their
collaborative research networks, for regional innovation
outcomes. To do so, we apply a knowledge production
function framework at the regional level and include
inventors’ networks and their labour mobility as regressors.
Our empirical approach takes full account of spatial
interactions by estimating a spatial lag model together, where
necessary, with a spatial error model. In addition, standard
errors are calculated using spatial heteroskedasticity and
autocorrelation consistent estimators to ensure their
robustness in the presence of spatial error autocorrelation
and heteroskedasticity of unknown form. Our results point to
the existence of a robust positive correlation between intraregional
labour mobility and regional innovation, whilst the
relationship with networks is less clear. However, networking
across regions positively correlates with a region’s innovation
intensity.

JEL classification: C8, J61, O31, O33, R1
Keywords: inventors’ mobility, networks of co-inventors, knowledge production function, spatial econometrics, European regions

What Regional Features Attract Talent? The Role of Space, Social Connections, Institutions, Employment and Amenities

by Ernest Miguelez

Ernest Miguélez & Rosina Moreno

Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to shed light on the determinants of geographical mobility of skilled... more Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to shed light on the determinants of geographical mobility of skilled individuals across the European regions. The most talented workers, e.g. inventors, move for a number of reasons, contributing in this manner to the geographical diffusion of knowledge as well as to reshape the geography of talent. Alongside physical separation from the origin location as well as other pulling factors of the destination location (amenities, economic conditions, and the like), we test whether social proximity between inventors’ communities and the so-called National System of Innovation drive also in- and out-flows of inventors between pairs of regions. Social proximity is instrumented by origin and destination fixed effects. In order to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of our dependent variable and the high number of zeros in it, zero inflated negative binomial models are used. Our first results point out to the importance of, still, geographical proximity in driving this phenomenon. However, job opportunities, as well as social relations and institutional, or technological and cultural proximities, are also playing a preponderant role in mediating the mobility patterns of inventors across the European geography.


Key words: inventors’ mobility, gravity model, amenities, job opportunities, social and institutional proximities, zero-inflated negative binomial, 2SRI, European regions


JEL: C8, J61, O31, O33, R0

Unconscious mental processes and the racial achievement gap

by Brian Earp

Earp, B.D. (2010). Automaticity in the classroom: Unconscious mental processes and the racial achievement gap. Journal of Multiculturalism in Education, Vol 6 No 1, 1-22.

"Das ist der Vorteil von so einer Beziehung, dass man sein Sonntagsgesicht versucht aufzusetzen" : eine empirische Studie über Alltäglichkeit in Fernbeziehungen

by Eva-Christina Edinger

Master Thesis concerning living-apart-together couples. An empirical study.
For this study I conducted interviews with 5 couples (academics and non academics, married and non-married, aged between the early 20th and over 60, with and without children)
For more information see abstract (in german) or contact me.

Fernbeziehungen stellen nicht nur ein Teilphänomen diverser soziologischer Forschungsgegenstände dar, sondern werfen... more Fernbeziehungen stellen nicht nur ein Teilphänomen diverser soziologischer Forschungsgegenstände dar, sondern werfen auch im Rahmen einer Monographie ein großes Spektrum an elementaren Forschungsfragen auf. Die vorliegende Arbeit widmet sich zunächst der grundlegend notwendigen Begriffsklärung im Bereich der Paarbeziehungs-Semantik. Was genau sind Fernbeziehungen, welche verwandten Beziehungsformen gibt es und wo gilt es Unterschiede und Widersprüche in den Begriffsdefinitionen aufzuzeigen? Dieser Diskussion folgt die Zusammenfassung einschlägigen Forschungsergebnisse bisheriger Untersuchungen, besonderer Augenmerk wird hierbei auf die Aspekte Mobilität, Bildungsexpansion und Individualisierung gelegt.

Mit Hilfe eines qualitativen Forschungsdesigns (Leitfadeninterviews mit fünf Fernbeziehungspaaren) werden vergleichbare Strukturen, aber auch Unterschiede innerhalb der Partnerschaften näher untersucht. Besonderen Stellenwert erhält hierbei der Entscheidungsprozess, den Paare durchlaufen, bevor sie sich zu einer Beziehung auf Distanz entschließen. Vor allem die Bedeutung der Berufstätigkeiten der Partner, die berufliche Motivation und Karriereziele spielen dabei eine entscheidende Rolle. Des Weiteren wird kritisch hinterfragt, ob Fernbeziehungen vor allem aus der (vermeintlichen) gesamtgesellschaftlichen Entwicklung hin zu vermehrter Individualisierung entstehen. Dabei gilt es auch zu diskutieren, in wie fern überhaupt von Lebensform gesprochen werden kann oder ob Fernbeziehungen vielmehr eine Lebensphase darstellen, die in bestimmten Abschnitten des (Erwerbs-) Lebens von Paaren gezielt gewählt wird.

Zu den wichtigsten Ergebnissen zählt die Erkenntnis, dass sich innerhalb aller untersuchten Fernbeziehungen eine Polarität hin zu und Betonung einer der beiden Wohnorte ausprägt. Dieser Wohnort kann in einigen Fällen sogar als gemeinsamer Hauptwohnsitz bezeichnet werden. Im Zusammenhang mit diesem Hauptwohnsitz rückt die Frage nach der Entstehung von Alltäglichkeit und Alltagsrhythmus in den Vordergrund.

Einen speziellen Teilaspekt stellt die Frage nach Ambivalenzen in Fernbeziehungen dar. Ausgehend von der bereits ambivalenten Begrifflichkeit zur Bezeichnung von intimen, sehr durch Nähe geprägten Paarbeziehungen, deren offensichtliches Merkmal hier jedoch die Distanz ist, wird untersucht, welchen Einfluss die Spannungsfelder Beruf – Privatleben, Verwurzelung am eigenen Wohnort – am Wohnort des Partners sowie Individuum – Dyade auf die Gestaltung und das subjektive Erleben der Partnerschaften ausüben.

Im Rückbezug auf die Phänomene Mobilität und Individualisierung lassen die Ambivalenz-spezifischen Ergebnisse Rückschlüsse zu, in wie weit Fernbeziehungen als Lebensform von den Betroffenen aktiv selbst gewählt sind bzw. in welchen Hinsicht eine Partnerschaft auf Distanz für manche Paare eine Notlösung darstellt.