Weak ties, fragile lives: Challenges facing international academics in the UK
How do international academics experience their careers in UK higher education, and specifically within Business Schools?
We draw upon composite stories of international academics' experiences and examine the UK HE as an ecosystem to illustrate the multifaceted challenges that they face in their career behaviours.
What do we show?
We provide illustrative stories of Song's and Ashok's experiences, showing how international academics face a fragile, unsustainable, career ecosystem characterized by sparse network ties with critical career actors, restricted employment opportunities, transactional psychological contracts, and thus scarce career choices.
Why do these academics have such an experience?
We attribute the unsustainability of this fragile career ecosystem to, what we term, its reduced career ecological diversity. We suggest that these international academics' career ecological diversity is reduced through their lack of access to critical career capital within UK academic communities.
What can be done?
We offer recommendations in the form of a toolkit for future research and practice for enhancing the inclusivity and sustainability of the career ecosystems for international academics in the UK. These recommendations offer means to support international academics at each level of the career ecosystem.
At the ecosystem level of macro trends and government policies, we can proactively and productively address adverse ramifications by, at the community and population levels, to help marginalised groups find their ecological niche wherein they can thrive.
At the community-level, career support might be offered by discipline-based associations to help international colleagues better understand UK characteristics of HE and academic work and to develop supportive networks and ties heightening their career ecological diversity.
Within institutions, the provision of career mentors would offer often much-needed support for international academics, helping them learn and thrive in their role while providing contextualised career guidance on navigating different career pathways.
At the individual level, recognition must be made of the past baggage that these international academics bring to the UK and how these inform or influence their preconceptions of academic identity and career within the UK.
Want to know more? See our Chapter "Weak ties, fragile lives: Challenges facing international academics in the UK" in C. Noble (Ed.)
International Careers and Academia: Professors without Borders. (Chapter 5), Routledge
