Anchoring globalization in Hong Kong's research universities: network agents, institutional arrangements, and brain circulation

Abstract

International competition drives research universities to find ways to anchor globalization for academic productivity and innovation through cross-border collaboration. This paper examines the case of pre-and postcolonial Hong Kong and how its universities transited from undergraduate institutions to highly ranked research universities within 30 years. While this is attributed to an enabling environment of institutional autonomy, open borders and cross-cultural capacity, a case study of one research university points to the role played in all of Hong Kong's universities by network agents, institutional arrangements, and brain circulation to recruit and retain international scholars and scientists. While this has strengthened capacity, it cannot be sustained without indigenous academic leadership to ensure that globalization is anchored in local culture. The paper makes the case that the Hong Kong model can be generalizable as a cosmopolitan model for developing countries, as it has in the Chinese mainland, even Hong Kong research universities continues to align with the general rise and development of highquality universities in Beijing and Shanghai.

Research Productivity of Returnees from Study Abroad in Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia

“…The use of English, a high level of economic development, competitive salaries, an open border, and a Westernized academic environment that protects academic freedom enable Hong Kong to attract talent from anywhere in the world (Postiglione 2013). As its research universities have achieved global ranking, they have begun to produce a larger share of the doctorates of the Hong Kong professoriate.…”

Building human resources management capacity for university research: The case at four leading Vietnamese universities

“…Thus, it seems that universities should not only offer the preferred rewards but also enable researchers to access the rewards they prefer when their needs change (Bland and Ruffin 1992). All in all, while research rewards can provide academics with some financial gains, more importantly, they recognize their special expertise, intellectual ability, and value to one's colleagues (McKeachie 1979(McKeachie , 1983, as cited in Bland and Ruffin 1992;Postiglione 2013).…”

“…Secondly, those universities seeking to build their research profile using expatriate academics need to ensure that visa application procedures should be simplified so that expatriate scholars' enthusiasm for contribution is not diminished due to unnecessary bureaucracy. Finally, while universities in developing countries may lure and keep top scientists from abroad in the initial phase, in order to achieve a sustainable strong research culture, these universities must nurture their own highly qualified local researchers as a long-term development strategy (Postiglione 2013).…”

Blurring Boundaries and Changing University Staff: The Case of the University of Hong Kong

“…To begin with, the lack of higher education research about university administration in Hong Kong is a significant burden in the study of this topic. Unlike topics such as academic organizations or institutional management (e.g., Mok & Lee, 2000;Postiglione, 2013), administrative organization has rarely become a focus of extensive research. Accumulation of both academic research and official statistics is imperative for the assessment of the biggest group of university workers.…”

“…State steering, in fact, is quite visible in their rather direct reform attempts, such as pushes for institutional mergers, role differentiation, and privatization. However, the extent of state steering remains on the system level to encourage a competitive environment and leaves individual institutions autonomy for their own strategic actions (Postiglione, 2013).…”