Multiple Roles of Academic Diasporas; Evidence from UK-based Turkish Academics

• In Event: Prospects of research: building research universities

Proposal

Over the recent decades, the UK has become a global hub for international scholars from around the world. Statistically speaking, in 2021, more than 70,000 international academic staff were employed at UK higher education institutions (HEIs), accounting for nearly one-third of the academic workforce. While the UK benefits substantially from its international academic workforce, the homelands of these international scholars pay the price for losing such talented minds to the UK. However, there are ways to ameliorate the effects of brain drain and even benefit from such academic diasporas. The literature suggests that academic diasporas can play a role as knowledge brokers (Larner, 2015), support home country development (Tejeda et al., 2013), or even offer political leverage for their homelands (Rabinowitz & Abramson, 2022). However, little attention has been paid to how academic diasporas reinforce the internationalization of higher education in the host country while supporting fellow nationals from the respective homeland. This paper explores the multiple roles academic diasporas can play by taking the example of UK-based Turkish academics.

This is an exploratory study, and in line with this, I employed a qualitative research design underpinned by a social constructivist philosophy. Further, I employed a transnationalism perspective to understand how UK-based Turkish academics develop a belonging to both countries. From this perspective, individuals act as carriers of their own identity without being uprooted from their home country so that they can belong to several places simultaneously whilst building up and maintaining transnational links.

The data is collected through fifty semi-structured in-depth interviews with UK-based Turkish academic staff. Interview questions included questions about their educational/academic lives before they became academics in the UK; the triumphs and challenges that the participants experienced in Turkey and the UK; and whether they collaborate with fellow nationals and support Turkey’s development, and, if so, how. Once the data collection was concluded and the transcriptions of audio recordings were completed, thematic analysis was employed to elicit a variety of themes via data analysis software (NVivo).

The data suggest that the support that diasporic Turkish academics provide to the fellow nationals and the development of Turkey takes the form of mentorship of junior scholars and students, co-authorship, joint grant applications, and acting as hosts for visiting fellows from Turkey.

Firstly, many interlocutors give seminars at Turkish universities and NGOs in Turkey and even offer master’s-level courses at Turkish universities during summertime. Due to Covid-19, the virtual participation of UK-based Turkish academics in such activities has skyrocketed. Some interlocutors keep their relationships with the audience alive and provide mentorship by giving feedback on students’ PhD proposals and junior researchers’ papers. While some interlocutors have more ongoing relationships with their mentees, some are the source of tacit knowledge about UK academia for outsiders. This tacit knowledge includes strategies to advance the chance of getting scholarships and preparing for job interviews at UK HEIs. Almost all interlocutors in the study are aware that the students and junior scholars in Turkey have difficulty in reaching out to non-Turkish UK academics; therefore, they feel a responsibility to answer such inquiries.

Further, UK-based Turkish academics, particularly social scientists, easily engage with bi/multinational research projects with fellow nationals as these collaborations could occur without the need for complete physical togetherness. The UK’s generous funding opportunities to promote partnerships with developing countries are widely used by UK-based Turkish academics to collaborate with Turkey-based academics. Since the funds, such as the Global Challenges Research Fund, mostly require knowledge spillover, the interlocutors are happy to produce vital knowledge that could support Turkey’s development. In particular, the UK’s flagship binational research partnership fund with developing countries, the Newton Fund, is found effective in building binational partnerships as it overcomes bureaucratic challenges and exclusively supports binational partnerships with specific countries, including Turkey. Many interlocutors accept the improbability of establishing partnerships without funding because of the heavy workload at UK universities. Notably, it is more feasible for Turkish academics working on permanent contracts at research-intensive UK universities to build transnational partnerships as their positions require them to focus more on international projects instead of teaching.

Finally, hosting fellow nationals, notably students and junior researchers from Turkey, is a common form of support cited by many interlocutors. Once the UK-based Turkish academics hold permanent positions or have administrative roles at the UK HEIs, they welcome and even encourage academic visitors from Turkey. In some cases, these academic visits turn into long-term academic partnerships.

It should be noted that despite the ongoing diasporic engagements, none of the interlocutors plans to return to Turkey in the foreseeable future permanently; instead, they embrace the UK as their second but permanent home.

In concluding remarks, academic diasporas, in this case UK-based Turkish academics, play a vital role in supporting the development of the home country (Turkey) by establishing transnational research partnerships, transferring knowledge, and hosting fellow nationals. However, these contributions remain limited due to the lack of binational funding, bureaucratic challenges, and the heavy workload in Turkey and the UK. Further, most of these contributions occur at the individual level, as Turkey does not have a formal program to create a network for academic diasporas that could serve as an essential source of information for both academic and policy-making purposes. This negligence is at odds with other countries, which have specifically chosen to see the presence of their nationals abroad as a strength to be maintained and nurtured. Therefore, I suggest that Turkey, and other developing countries, establish an official network to facilitate partnerships with academic diasporas and look for binational research partnerships with UK funding agencies, hence alleviating the consequences of losing their talents.

Importantly, UK-based Turkish academics’ diasporic engagements, directly and indirectly, reinforce the internationalization of the UK higher education system, as these activities involve attracting international students and researchers, establishing transnational partnerships, and co-authorship with international (Turkey-based) academics. Therefore, I further suggest that the UK and other significant hubs should support bi/multinational research projects and mobility schemes in which academic diasporas can take an active role in building bridges.

Author

• Tugay Durak, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society