How does social capital influence academic job seeking experiences in China: A comparison between PhD returnees and domestic PhDs

• In Event: Spotlight on International Students: Perspectives from East Asia

Proposal

Introduction
PhDs are considered significant contributors to the knowledge-based world (Neumann & Tan, 2011). In the past several decades, China invested heavily to expand the doctoral programmes and thus produced an increasing number of PhD graduates. By contrast to the increasing supply of PhD graduates, academic positions, which are deemed as one of the most desirable career destinations for PhD graduates (German, Sweeny & Robbins, 2019), are declining. Therefore, the academic labour market in China is perceived as hyper competitive (Waaijer, Teelken, Wouters, & van der Weijden, 2018). The increasing number of international returnees has further intensified the competition.
The literature review finds that while previous studies have explored home educated PhDs or PhD returnees’ academic job seeking experiences, they seldom conducted comparison between these two cohorts. To fill this research gap, this study investigated how domestic PhDs and PhD returnees perceive their academic job seeking experiences in China, particularly how the two cohorts utilized social capital to access job opportunities and obtain job positions.
Theoretical Framework
This study adopted Lin’s (2008) social capital model of status attainment as the theoretical framework. According to Lin (2017), social capital is the embedded resources within one’s social networks that can be accessed and mobilized. On the basis of empirical investigations, Lin (1999) identified that occupational status is specifically associated with network resources, tie extensity, tie strength with contacts, and contact status.
People usually use formal or informal approaches to search job opportunities. The latter is usually influenced by the strength of ties with job contacts. Weak ties are widely accepted as crucial for better job opportunities, as they offer diverse resources. However, in the academic context, strong ties have been found to be more successful in job hunting (Murraye et al., 1981).
Research Methodology
Qualitative research methodology, located within the interpretivist research paradigm (Creswell, 2012), was adopted in this study. Specifically, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 domestic PhDs and 13 PhD returnees, due to its advantages in generating rich data and eliciting further clarifications (Adhabi & Anozie, 2017). Upon completion, the interviews were verbatim transcribed and analyzed in qualitative analysis tool N-vivo 12.0 through an iterative process of the deductive and inductive approaches.
Findings and Discussion
The power of informal channels in a society of interpersonal relationships
Chinese academic community echoes the larger society of interpersonal relationships, where academic acquaintances convert to social resources for job searching. Domestic PhDs possess extensive academic ties including their advisors, peers supervised by the same advisor, and cohorts. These nationwide academic-related networks provides hidden information accessible only to insiders and thus make their access to job information reliant on informal channels easier.
However, returnee PhDs lack the advantage of such conveniences as they insufficiently invest in developing strong social ties in China while studying abroad. Thus, they rely more on formal channels, such as university websites, young scholar forums, etc.
Centering around the advisor: Strong ties in the Chinese academia
Whose advisor is more influential?
In Chinese academia, the advisor-advisee relationship, akin to that of a father to a son, creates the master’s household (师门，shī mén ) centered around the advisor and solidified by advisees working in various universities through the strong ties within the blood-like relationship. All domestic Ph.Ds. acknowledge the pivotal role of their doctoral advisors’ reputation and recommendations in securing academic positions.
However, the social influence and resources of international returnees’ advisors are hardly transferable across borders into the Chinese academia. Different social-cultural contexts and labor markets limit the assistance provided by foreign advisors, particularly those not well-connected with the Chinese academia.
International returnees’ key contact
International returnees who obtained their Masters in China, however, process overwhelmingly advantages in job searching over those who studied abroad since college. While their Master’s advisor in China serves as the sole and key contact, providing access to valuable social resources in the Chinese academic labor market, those who completed their Masters abroad face a job-searching dilemma, described as “when looking up, I see no-one familiar (举目无亲，jǔ mù wú qīn)”.

Growing on the University-level platforms: the Institutionalization of Social Capital

During domestic PhDs’ job searching process, the efficacy and quality of individuals’ social capital hook with their university’s level and ranking. Since they all graduated from “985” (top 40) universities, the halo effect of top-ranking universities amplifies the utilization efficiency of social capital, providing graduates with a smooth entry into prestigious academic circles through institutionalized advisor-related social ties.
Controversially, the overseas universities fail to be a platform of cultivating institutional-based social capital for returnee PhDs’ job-searching in China, despite having a higher world reputation than the “985” universities. Since the Chinese academia places great importance on one’s academic origin, returnee PhDs may face discrimination of their Chinese Bachelor’s degree and therefore had lower job searching satisfactions.
The institutionalization of social capital enables its group members to access high-status social resources and enhances the efficiency of mobilizing social networks. However, it also creates barriers for outsiders based on academic, institutional, and national differences, breeding the consanguinity of scholarships (学缘，xué yuán) that leads to the institutional accumulation of prestigious social circles and reproduction of academic hierarchy. It also challenges the role of overseas doctoral degrees in facilitating returnee PhDs’ social mobility in China.
Conclusion
This study has significant theoretical and practical implications. From the theoretical perspective, this is one of the first studies having adopted social capital theory to analyze PhDs’ access and mobilization of social capital to achieve academic career mobility in China. Moreover, it extended Lin’s (2008, 2017) social capital model of status attainment by investigating returnee PhDs’ utilization of social capital in transnational contexts rather than within one national context. From the practical perspective, this study presents the complexities of social science PhD’s job seeking experiences in Chinese academia and provides implications for prospective PhD graduates to access job opportunities and obtain job positions.

Authors

• Xiaoli Jing, Beijing Normal University

• Yuejia Wang, University at Buffalo