What Money Cannot Buy: Experience of International Academics in Universities in Taiwan

Abstract

This qualitative, interview-based research sets to understand the experience of internationally mobile academics working in the higher education institutions in Taiwan, with a focus on their motivation, local adjustment, and perceived success. Driven by Taiwan’s own university excellence initiatives, the actions taken by the country’s universities to recruit international talent, with financial support from the government, have become increasingly prevailing since early 2000s. However, despite Taiwan’s focus on internationalising the higher education sector through engaging foreign academics, the experiences of those recruited to work in Taiwan’s universities are rarely discussed and their voice often unheard.

Twenty-four international academics working at universities in Taiwan took part in the in-depth interviews to provide their first-hand experience of managing the journey from pre-departure to post-arrival of working and living in Taiwan. Consistency was found in the research findings with prior study around career motivation and aspiration; however, feedback from interviewees showed that international academics working in Taiwan typically reported the lack of systemic, institutionalised facilitation to help them adapt and perform.

Findings of this research also showed that social capital, which is often observed in the form of guanxi in Taiwan, serve to mitigate the negative impact of the lack of social capital and positively drive the individuals towards objective and subjective success. Connecting international work mobility, adjustment success, and social capital, this study offers an explanatory framework to journey of international academics working in Taiwan. Furthermore, this study reflected on the missing efforts from Taiwan and its universities in understanding its target talent and urged improvements to be made to help internationally mobile academics flourish in Taiwan.

Date of Award	4 Apr 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Cornelia Lawson (Supervisor), Deborah Brewis (Supervisor) & Dan Davies (Supervisor)