Entering or Turning Around:What Factors Influence the Academic Career Choices of Doctoral International Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: The impact and challenges of artificial intelligence and digital tools in diverse educational contexts

Proposal

As the process of globalization accelerates, an increasing number of doctoral students are opting to study abroad. This trend not only benefits the academic abilities of doctoral students but also positions international study experiences as advantageous for future employment prospects. Doctoral education primarily aims to cultivate high-level creative talents in teaching and research. However, the reality reflects an increasing trend of academic doctoral graduates entering industries and enterprises to engage in technical research or managerial roles, indicating a global shift towards doctoral employment beyond the confines of academia. The profound knowledge possessed by doctoral international students is no longer fragmented, or narrow but necessitates more connections with local community needs as well as with enterprises and industries. The analysis of the factors influencing the career preferences of doctoral students reveals that the Social Cognitive Career Theory and Expectancy-Value Theory serve as the mainstream theories in studying academic career choices. These theories posit that interest, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, social support, and barriers are all associated with academic career choices. Moreover, self-efficacy and outcome expectations are believed to influence academic career preferences by impacting interest. Previous studies have indicated that the close correlation between enrollment conditions, behavioral efforts, ability outcomes, and career prospects of doctoral students and their academic career preferences. However, these research has not adequately considered the interrelationships between enrollment conditions, academic behavioral efforts, academic ability outcomes, academic career prospects, and academic career choices, with limited attention paid to the academic career preferences of doctoral international students as a specific group. This study utilizes data of 534 doctoral international students from the 2022 Nature Global Graduate Survey and uses structural equation modeling to analyze the influencing factors of doctoral international students' academic career preferences. All the model fitting indices conformed to the hypothetical model (χ2/df = 2.628, CFI = 0.940, TLI = 0.918, RMSEA = 0.058, SRMR = 0.047). The findings reveal that external support significantly and positively predicts the level of academic ability (β=0.446, p<0.001, 95%CI=[0.339, 0.400]) and academic career prospects (β=0.535, p<0.001, 95%CI=[0.231, 0.302]). However, the level of academic ability does not significantly predict academic career prospects (β=0.153, p=0.307, 95%CI=[-0.034, 0.213]) or academic career choices (β=0.032, p=0.673, 95%CI=[-0.074, 0.079]). Instead, academic career prospects significantly and positively predict academic career choices (β=0.121, p<0.01, 95%CI=[0.056, 0.120]). The mediating effect of academic ability level on the prediction of academic career prospects by external support among doctoral international students is not significant (β=0.068, p=0.235, 95%CI=[-0.007, 0.042]). Similarly, the mediating effect of academic career prospects on the prediction of academic career choices by academic ability level is also not significant (β=0.089, p=0.318, 95%CI=[-0.023, 0.119]). Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence for the importance of improving the training model for doctoral international students worldwide. And this research will also prepare future doctoral international students with the necessary skills and mindset to adapt to knowledge transformation and a diverse job market.

Author

• xiaoxiao feng, East China Normal University