A temporal-agential lens on the reintegration experiences of Chinese early career STEM returnees

ABSTRACT

Recently, there has been a massive trend of Chinese international PhD graduates returning to China’s research-intensive universities that are undergoing systemic reforms and aspire to flourish in the global higher education field. Taking into account this changing academic environment and field-specific mobility patterns, the study examines the case of 14 early career science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) returnees employed in one of such institutions. Informed by a temporal perspective on agency, we present their academic reintegration experiences negotiated on national/local and institutional levels and unfolding in multiple realms of their post-return lives. Findings derive three prominent themes concerning their encounter with Chinese work culture encompassing entrenched and emerging features, embeddedness into local academic communities of exchange, and navigation of transformative possibilities within the institutional framework of career excellence. Importantly, the study underscores that structures internal to the university can profoundly shape the way returnees leverage their cosmopolitan assets and the direction they take in envisioning their transnationally viable career paths.

KEYWORDS:

• International PhD graduates
• return academic migration
• agency
• early career academics
• Chinese higher education

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all the participants for generously contributing their time and candidly sharing their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Education) [grant number CIA210277].