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Faculty internationalization at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST): a promising practice study

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Faculty internationalization at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST): a promising practice study

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Content FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST 1
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT THE HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (HKUST): A PROMISING PRACTICE STUDY

by
Paulo Rodrigues

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

June 2019

Copyright 2019 Paulo Rodrigues
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

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DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Irene Lourenço da Silva;
“Mãe”, your wisdom and strength far surpassed your lack of access to formal education. You
could not write or read, but your fight for survival, your resilience, and appreciation for hard
work and honesty have inspired and instilled in me the courage to pursue and achieve dreams
beyond our wildest imagination. The pleasure you took in sacrificing everything for the
wellbeing of your eight kids will never be forgotten. I speak for me and for my brothers and
sisters, none of it was in vain, please accept my work as celebration and gratitude for your life.
I also dedicate this dissertation to my wife, Joelma Felix, you have been my rock and
support in so many life adventures. Even when you fear, you stand by my side, and if necessary,
we take the fall together, never allowing regrets for not trying or taking risks. I have loved you
for a long time, and will continue to.
I also dedicate this dissertation to my two kids, Arthur and Sophia Rodrigues, you are the
reason life is worth living. Thank you for graciously supporting me even when this meant time
away from us as family. I thank you for the challenges we face together and for helping me
continue to work on being a better father and better human being. I cannot express how much I
love you.
I also want to thank my huge family, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, in-laws, and
friends for your love and support to me, Joelma, Arthur and Sophia. I am specially thankful to
my brothers Joel and Samuel Rodrigues, who at different times in my life have supported and
inspired me in so many ways. I still want to be like you when I grow up.
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Finally, I thank my best friend Denilson Motta, who throughout the years, whether near
or far, have stayed a true friend. Thank you for your support to me and my family. I will
continue to love and admire you.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I acknowledge that without God’s guiding hand, nothing would have been possible.
Next, my deepest gratitude and appreciation goes to my Chair, Dr. Tracy Tambascia, for her
guidance, flexibility, and encouragement through this challenging process. I am also thankful to
the members of my committee, Dr. Ruth Chung and Dr. Robert Filback, thank you for your time,
kindness, and invaluable feedback that made my dissertation better.
To Dr. Mark Robison and Dr. Sabrina Chong, my heartfelt gratitude for your leadership
and commitment to making the Global Executive Ed.D. better each year. I will not forget my
admission interview and how that discussion expanded my horizons as to the possibilities and
opportunities ahead of me, it is all happening. Dr. Chung, you have gone out of your way to be a
friend and supporter for me and my family at a very critical moment of our lives, there is no
space here to express what that means to me.
I am grateful for the University of Southern California for providing the right set of
circumstances for me to pursue this degree. More specifically, I want to thank Dr. Anthony
Bailey, for believing in my potential, giving me this opportunity, and for all the mentorship and
guidance over the last six years.
I also want to thank my former bosses who wrote beautiful letters of recommendation for
me to get into this program, Brian Brisson and Judy Verses, your friendship and mentorship have
been invaluable.
Finally, I want to thank my friends in Cohorts 5 and 6, what a blessing to go through this
journey with phenomenal people such as yourselves. I am forever grateful for your support and
kindness to let me be a part of this adventure. A special thanks to Sean Ferguson, for helping me
connect with the right people to collect data for my research.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication 2
Ackowledgements 4
List of Tables 8
List of Figures 9
Abstract 10
Chapter One: Introduction 11
Background of the Problem 12
Importance of a Promising Practice Project 15
Organizational Context and Mission 16
Organizational Performance Goal and Current Performance 18
Description of Stakeholder Groups 20
Stakeholder Group for the Study 22
Purpose of the Project and Questions 22
Conceptual and Methodological Framework 23
Definitions 24
Organization of the Project 24
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature 26
Internationalization in Higher Education 26
Current Trends in Internationalization 26
Motivations to Internationalize 28
Key Internationalization Stakeholders 29
Faculty Internationalization 33
Defining International Faculty 33
The Push-Pull Model 34
Concentration of Knowledge 36
Hiring and Retaining International Faculty 40
Competition for High Quality Faculty 41
Institutional Policies Pertaining to International Faculty 45
The Evolution of Asian Universities 47
A Reconfiguration of Traditional Centers of Knowledge 49
The Role of Universities in a Nation-State Development Strategy 50
Administrators’ Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Factors 55
Knowledge Influences 56
Motivational Influences 58
Organizational Influences 60
Purpose of the Project and Questions 64
Stakeholders of Focus 64
Methodological Framework 65
Assumed Influences 66
Preliminary Scanning Data and Critical Observations 67
Participants 70
Data Collection Procedure 71
Interviews 72
Document Analysis 72
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Validation of Influences 73
Trustworthiness of Data 75
Role of Investigator 76
Data Analysis 76
Limitations and Delimitations 77
Chapter Four: Findings 79
Discovered Contextual Findings 79
Institutional Maturity 79
Western Orientation 83
Location 85
Diversity 87
Knowledge Findings 90
Role and Importance of International Faculty 90
Global Competition for International Faculty 92
Strategies to Recruit and Retain International Faculty 94
Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits 96
Connection and Access to Centers of Knowledge 100
Fostering an Environment of Academic Freedom 101
Motivation Findings 103
Value of the Role and Importance of International Faculty 104
Value of Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits 105
Value of Relationships and Access to Centers of Knowledge 107
Value of Academic Freedom 108
Value of Policies and Practices to Integrate International Faculty 108
Organization Findings 109
Leadership Support, Administrative Autonomy, and Role Models 110
Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits 113
Resources to Access Global Networks 115
Research Infrastructure 115
Policies and Practices to Integrate International Faculty 117
Career Advancement Opportunities 119
Summary of Validated Assets 120
Chapter Five: Recommendations, Implementation, and Evaluation 121
Potentially Transferable Promising Practices 123
Focus on Quality and Diversity 124
Strategies to Recruit Globally 125
Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits 125
Policies to Support the Integration of International Faculty and their Families 126
Implementation Plan and Evaluation 128
Recommendations, Action Steps, and Evaluation 130
Future Research 141
Conclusion 141
References 143
Appendix A: Interview Protocol - Administrators 157
Appendix B: Interview Protocol – Faculty 159
Appendix C: Document Review Protocol 161
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Appendix D: Summary of Assumed Knowledge Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to
Achieve the Performance Goal 162
Appendix E: Summary of Assumed Motivation Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to
Achieve the Performance Goal 165
Appendix F: Summary of Assumed Organization Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to
Achieve the Performance Goal 167
Appendix G: University of Southern California Information Sheet for Research 169
Appendix H: Sample Communication E-mail 171
Appendix I: Sample Communication E-mail 172

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Push and Pull Factors in the Migration of Health-Care Professionals 35
Table 2: Ranking of Hong Kong’s Top Six Universities 54
Table 3: International Faculty QS Ranking Grade 55
Table 4: Summary Validation Table 73
Table 5: Validated Knowledge Assets 90
Table 6: Validated Motivation Assets 103
Table 7: Validated Organization Assets 109
Table 8: Profile of HKUST Presidents 112
Table 9: Validated KMO Assumed Assets 121
Table 10: Summary of Recommendations, Action Steps, Estimated Timelines, Constraints and
Challenges 128
Table 11: Evaluation of Focus on Quality and Diversity 134
Table 12: Evaluation of Strategies to Recruit Globally 136
Table 13: Evaluation of Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits 138
Table 14: Evaluation of Policies to Support the Integration of International Faculty and their
Families 141

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Composition of faculty per origin of Ph.D. 85
Figure 2: HKUST non-academic staff as of July 2018. 116

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this case study was to explore a promising practice, the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology (HKUST), to better understand gaps in faculty internationalization in
higher education. More specifically, the dissertation looked at how HEIs can be more successful
in attracting, hiring, and retaining international faculty. A qualitative approach of interviews and
document analysis was utilized, and the conceptual framework was the Clark and Estes (2008)
gap analysis. A total of eleven participants were interviewed, including administrators and
faculty, and four major documents were reviewed. Findings validated 17 of 22 assumed assets,
and discovered four contextual assets. Key assets and potentially transferable practices based on
the promising practice include a continuous focus on quality and diversity, the implementation of
strategies to recruit faculty globally, the review and implementation of competitive compensation
and benefits, and the development of policies to support and integrate international faculty and
their families. An implementation, including action steps and timeline, and an evaluation plan
for each of the recommendations, provide a basic roadmap for the development of a faculty
internationalization strategy.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Internationalization has become a central topic within higher education. Leaders in the
field increasingly discuss tertiary learning within the context of globalization (Hudzik, 2011).
The relevance, complexity, and breadth of the subject has created room for multiple definitions
and understandings of what internationalization is and what it means for higher education
institutions (HEIs) faced with the challenges of implementing sustainable international
initiatives. One of the most frequently cited definitions by Altbach and Knight (2007) stated that
“internationalization includes the policies and practices undertaken by academic systems and
institutions – and even individuals – to cope with the global academic environment” (p. 290).
Given the complexity of internationalization, this dissertation focused on the process of
internationalizing faculty, arguably the most critical stakeholder group impacting the success of
internationalization of HEIs (Hudzik, 2011).
Although many HEIs recognize the importance of internationalization, concrete actions
to develop and sustain global initiatives do not always follow the discourse (Dewey & Duff,
2009). The results of the American Council on Education (ACE, 2012) Mapping
Internationalization on U.S. Campuses showed that only 32% of participating institutions had an
internationalization component clearly identified in their mission statement; 35% reported that it
was among their top five priority projects; 26% had a separate plan to address institution-wide
internationalization; and only 8% reported that their institution had guidelines in place to specify
international work or experiences as a consideration in faculty promotion and tenure decisions.
The problem of practice addressed by this dissertation is the gap in faculty internationalization in
higher education. More specifically, the dissertation looked at how HEIs can be more successful
in attracting, retaining, and developing scholars that are internationally connected.
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Background of the Problem
As HEIs increasingly engage in international initiatives, the literature is unanimous in
recognizing faculty as one of the most important stakeholder groups to engage and to gain
support from in order to achieve success (Helms, 2015; Hudzik, 2011). In fact, many will argue
that internationalization is not a feasible process in higher education without the support and
engagement of faculty. Searching for, hiring, and retaining faculty that are intercultural and
globally connected is challenging, and competition is a hard reality for global HEIs (Dewey &
Duff, 2009; Postiglione, 2013; Salmi, 2012). Competition for students and faculty as part of
internationalization has been approached by a number of scholars with a positive view of the
benefits to higher education (de Wit, 2010; Hudzik, 2011; Teichler, 2010). Nevertheless, there is
a growing voice with a more critical view of the ways in which globalization has contributed to
the formation of a group of elite universities, generating more inequity and concentration of
knowledge in developed countries (Adnett, 2010; Rizvi & Lingard, 2010; Suspitsyna, 2015).
Whether located in traditional centers of knowledge of more industrialized countries or
emerging markets, the way in which institutions deal with its faculty internationalization
indicates the true commitment to the pursuit of internationalization. In addition to institutional
commitment, faculty hiring and reward systems signal the expectation that faculty should engage
and make efforts to insert an international component to instruction and research projects
(Hudzik, 2011). The lack of concrete institutional resources and policies that consistently
support internationalization through the faculty, can lead to discredit by this critical stakeholder.
A study by Criswell, John and Zhu (2015) to assess the views of faculty related to
internationalization processes, surveyed faculty of three universities in the United States and
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Canada to find that 86.61 percent of respondents thought institutions should be doing more to
support internationalization.
Faculty of different profiles, backgrounds and ethnicities are valuable assets to address
the many needs and missions of HEIs in the 21
st
century. In the context of this study, there is an
attempt to highlight the contributions and roles that international faculty play in the overall
context of higher education and specifically in internationalization processes. These scholars are
recognized for being the drivers of international consciousness at HEIs and occupy a central role
in global higher education. Mobile faculty bring diversity, new perspectives, skills and
previously built connections to their new institutions (Altbach & Yudkevich, 2016).
The growing importance of all forms of diversity on campus, especially among the
student population, require institutions to be better equipped to deal with all sorts of differences.
This reality includes the growing number of international students from different cultures,
languages and academic costumes and behaviors. In this fast changing environment,
international faculty can also play a key role in better relating, empathizing and mentoring
different groups effectively (Hénard, Diamond, & Roseveare, 2012).
Traditionally, the flow of international faculty has been observed in favor of universities
in North America and Europe, a reality reflected in international rankings, dominated by HEIs
located in the developed world. “Brain drain,” the transfer of human capital from developing to
developed countries (Beine, Docquier, & Rapoport, 2008), has been another issue that
developing countries have dealt with as their best and brightest faculty and students very
frequently end up at universities in the developed world, therefore reinforcing the concentration
and elitism of intellectual asset (Stein, Andreotti, Bruce, & Suša, 2016).
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The partial counter measure to the concentration argument is a relatively recent
phenomenon in global education, with the rise of Asian universities (Sagara, 2014). HEIs in
Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and South Korea have been quite successful in reverting brain
drain to brain gain, brain return, or circulation (Andreotti, Bruce, Stein, & Suša, 2016; Salmi,
2012). Their strategy, normally embedded in a larger engine of a national approach to economic
development, has used the hiring of foreign faculty as an alternative to fast tracking
internationalization and relevant participation in the global knowledge network, formed by
centers of excellence, research, and innovation (Postiglione, 2013; Sagara, 2014).
The rise of Asian HEIs did not happen in a vacuum. Postiglione (2013) described the
evolution of policies and organizational structures that created the conditions for the elevation of
Hong Kong universities to world-class centers of excellence and research. The maturation of the
necessary environment is also congruent with Hudzik’s (2011) argument that internationalization
is not an end in itself but rather a means to achieving multiple goals. In the case of Hong Kong,
world-class research universities are a part of a larger nation-state strategic plan. Timberman
(2013) in turn presents how Asian HEIs such as South Korea’s POSTECH and Hong Kong’s
HKUST, founded in 1986 and 1991 respectively, have benchmarked the entrepreneurial modus
operandi of American universities, such as Harvard and Caltech, which are associated with a
strong internationalization agenda to boost achievement and recognition as world-class
universities. In both cases, achieving such status in a short period of time required the hiring and
retention of international faculty, either foreign-born or those who have obtained a terminal
degree from a foreign institution.
While there is an intricate confluence of external, internal, coordinated, and
uncoordinated factors that resulted in the fast rise of Asian HEIs, this dissertation intends to seek
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

15
a deeper understanding of the knowledge, motivations, and organizational assets influencing
success related to faculty internationalization.
Importance of a Promising Practice Project
It is important to examine promising practices in context of the problem of faculty
internationalization for a variety of reasons. The internationalization of HEIs tends to reflect the
inequities of knowledge concentration and wealth in the more developed parts of the world
(Altbach & Knight, 2007). Whether HEIs compete or cooperate for resources, faculty and
students, internationalization requires new ways of thinking and delivering higher education (de
Wit, 2010). Although guides to internationalization, such as NAFSA’s comprehensive
internationalization framework, avoid using the term “best practices” to prevent defining a
particular approach to internationalization, they use instead “good” or “model” practices that
have been successful at individual institutions and may be transferable to others (Hudzik, 2011).
Studying a promising practice can help identify successful contextual framing, practices,
policies, programs, and organizational structures that may be replicated by other institutions in
order to successfully implement and sustain faculty internationalization.
The institution identified as a promising practice for this study is the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology, HKUST. HKUST is a young institution that quickly
achieved world-class status by adopting an internationalization strategy centered on attracting
international faculty (Postiglione, 2013). HKUST has successfully hired and retained nearly
50% of its faculty from outside of Hong Kong. Also, approximately 80% of HKUST’s faculty
hold a terminal degree granted by a top-ranked foreign university (Sagara, 2014). Further details
of HKUST’s context and performance in the area of faculty internationalization are discussed
next.
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Organizational Context and Mission
HKUST is part of Hong Kong’s public higher education system, composed of eight
research universities. These universities have been strategically developed to fulfill a role in a
well-planed government strategy for economic development and the modernization of Hong
Kong and Mainland China (Postiglione, 2013). Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997,
when it was returned to the People’s Republic of China to receive the status of a Special
Administrative Region (SAR). As such, it keeps a high degree of autonomy and has an
independent judiciary system under common law. This system provides businesses, academic
institutions, and other legal entities the necessary level of freedom, independence and stability to
operate. Building on its history as a center for international business, services and trade, Hong
Kong has positioned itself as a “center of reception, translation and diffusion of knowledge”
(Postiglione, 2013). With its limited territory, industry and natural resources, Hong Kong has
made human capital, research and innovation its main national product.
HKUST was founded in 1991 as an English-medium research university, and has quickly
become a world-class university of global relevance. Its mission blends a mandate to advance
learning and knowledge through teaching and research while assisting the local and regional
economic and social development. With 14,210 students in undergraduate and graduate
programs in the areas of science, technology, engineering, management and business; 660
faculty members; and around 2,800 administrative and support staff, HKUST provides an
interdisciplinary and global education in an entrepreneurial environment. HKUST’s vision
clearly states its global positioning as “a world-class university at the cutting edge internationally
in all target fields of pursuit” (HKUST, 2017).
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17
Postiglione (2013) lists a number of factors that contributed to HKUST’s success,
including luck. However, he identifies the central figure of this success as “amphibious network
agents.” These network agents normally facilitate the flow of knowledge given their access and
connections across national borders, regions, and groups of influence. Leadership at HKUST is
representative of the importance given to network agents. Its first President, Dr. Woo Chia-wei,
was born in Shanghai and lived in the United States since 1955. While there, he completed his
undergraduate and graduate education, and became the first Chinese president of a leading
American university. The second President, Dr. Paul Ching-Wu, was the University of Houston
Chair of Science and recipient of the Nacional Medal of Science. Dr. Tony Chan, HKUST’s
president until 2018, worked at UCLA and was assistant director of the U.S. National Science
Foundation (Timberman, 2013). With a leadership of highly admired, amphibious network
agents, and the Hong Kong environment resembling the work conditions valued by Chinese
faculty teaching in the United States, such as social and economic security, academic freedom,
and high-end infrastructure and resources to do research (Cooksey & Cole, 2012), Dr. Woo was
able to attract American scientists of Asian origin occupying well-paid and stable positions in
North America (Postiglione, 2013). These scientists were in large part members of the Asian
diaspora (Salmi, 2012), in many ways with a background very similar to that of Dr. Woo and his
successors, who would act as amphibious network agents themselves in their respective areas of
teaching and research. In addition, they had a sense of commitment to their land of origin, and
were convinced of this unique historical opportunity to contribute with the region’s development.
HKUST presents a valuable promising practice for universities in developing countries as well as
those in developed areas of the world that have not yet successfully implemented faculty
internationalization initiatives (Postiglione, 2013).
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Organizational Performance Goal and Current Performance
HKUST’s commitment to being a world-class university is partially confirmed by
rankings. It was ranked first in the QS Asia University Rankings (2013) and continues to remain
in the top five. In the QS Asia University Ranking (2016) HKUST received the maximum grade
of 100 for international faculty. Its international outlook indicator in THE World University
Rankings (2016) is 80.5 out of 100, when compared to American universities, it would be second
only to MIT with an 84 grade for the same indicator in that ranking.
Furthermore, HKUST’s global engagement and outreach is documented in two of the six
key areas of the university Strategic Plan (HKUST, 2017). With over 250 exchange and
international cooperation partnerships, HKUST has carefully chosen strategic partners with
which innovative programs such as a triple-degree for business undergraduate students, tripartite
academic exchange and research collaboration, and international internships, are among some of
the successful initiatives. In addition to traditional forms of global initiatives, the use of
technology through online massive open online courses (MOOC) makes HKUST accessible for
students who otherwise would not have access.
Faculty and student diversity has also been at the center of HKUST’s success in
becoming a highly international school (Postiglione, 2013) with nearly 50 percent of faculty and
36 percent of students coming from outside of Hong Kong. Also, approximately 80 percent of
HKUST’s faculty hold a terminal degree granted by a top-ranked foreign university (Sagara,
2014). HKUST’s performance in attracting and retaining a highly internationalized body of
faculty also contributes to its prominent position in international rankings.
In 2000, nine years after HKUST’s founding, the University Council, which is the
supreme governing and executive body of the university, adopted the following vision: “a
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leading university with significant international impact and strong local commitment" (HKUST,
2017). The goal called for providing a center where “academic international stars” could operate
at their best capacity in research and teaching. Upon completing its 15
th
anniversary, HKUST
was determined to “lead rather than follow scientific and technological trends, and to develop
new thinking rather than simply follow existing business practice and policy” (HKUST, 2005).
The path for achieving such goal materialized in a 15-year plan named Strategic Plan 2005-
2020. Among the key milestones to reaching the goal was the creation of the Institute for
Advanced Study (IAS), modeled after a center with the same name at Princeton University. IAS
symbolizes and confirms HKUST’s ongoing commitment to investing in human capital and
attracting high level academic staff. The objective was to elevate already strong-performing
programs to international leadership by hiring academic stars, well-known scholars whose names
would be recognized internationally, therefore bringing visibility to HKUST (HKUST, 2005).
In 2011, a five-year review of the 15-year plan was published, which defined six focus
areas for further development (HKUST, 2011). Two of these areas are directly related to the
object of this study. First, is the “International and Mainland China Strategy,” focused on
fostering partnerships and collaborations in major geographical locations; increasing research
and academic capacity; recruiting the best international students and faculty; and enhancing
international prestige, reputation and branding. This would be accomplished through strategic
entrepreneurial engagement and communication with governments, enterprises and universities.
Second is the “Faculty Development” strategic area, which recognizes faculty as a key driving
force for the fulfillment of HKUST’s mission, and central to its ability to recruit and retain top
quality faculty. To address the latter, HKUST prescribes a proactive approach to recruitment by
adopting two main initiatives: a) recruit over 100 new and replacement faculty members over the
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

20
next five years, aiming to keep an international mix to ensure HKUST’s status as a global
university; and b) develop flexible and internationally-competitive faculty compensation
packages, including the adequate provision of endowed/term professorships and start-up funds
(HKUST, 2011). In looking back to the previous five years, the Strategic Plan 2011-16
(HKUST, 2011) credits HKUST’s achievements, among other factors, to its strong global
outreach, interdisciplinary studies, entrepreneurial spirit, innovative thinking, and support of IAS
as a global knowledge hub.
HKUST’s performance in achieving high level of academic excellence and the constant
pursuit of internationalization, makes it a good candidate for study to understand what it takes to
successfully implement a faculty internationalization strategy.
Description of Stakeholder Groups
Three key stakeholder groups were identified as having a direct impact on HKUST’s
ability to recruit and retain international faculty, as reflected in the QS Asia University Ranking
(2016), in which HKUST received the maximum grade of 100 for international faculty. First, the
government as responsible for creating and maintaining the necessary conditions in which world-
class universities operate. Faculty was the second group, considering they act individually and
collectively to leverage their research and contact networks that make HKUST truly global.
Finally, administrators as responsible for proactively fulfilling the university’s goal to recruit and
retain high-quality and globally connected faculty.
First, we discuss the government role. In a speech at the Times Higher Education Asia
Universities Summit, HKUST’s then president listed the special conditions that make Hong
Kong a unique place for the growth and success of world-class universities: “the rule of law, a
low tax system, free flow of information, a bilingual pool of professionals, academic freedom,
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

21
top infrastructure, and government support” (Chan, 2016). Although government support is
listed as one of the factors, others are possible due to Hong Kong’s status as a Special
Administrative Region (SAR). Prior to Hong Kong leaving the British domain, public leaders
clearly understood the need for having these conditions. The necessary laws, policies, and
individuals were put in place to create a suitable environment for Hong Kong universities to
pursue world-class status. The same conditions do not exist, for instance, in mainland China. A
change in the environment resulting from Chinese government ruling can change the dynamics
and equilibrium of Hong Kong’s higher education ecosystem, affecting HKUST and all other
universities, private companies, and other institutions.
Second, we look into the faculty role. HKUST’s proactive engagement and
prioritization of recruitment and retention of globally connected faculty is one of the pillars of its
success in internationalization efforts and overall institutional positioning. With a group of 660
faculty members, 50 percent of whom from outside Honk Kong, and approximately 80 percent
holding a terminal degree from a foreign university (Timberman, 2013). While most faculty at
HKUST are internationally connected, their interest and willingness to stay active and produce
research of global impact in collaboration with researchers in other parts of the world has a direct
impact on the university’s performance. HKUST’s ranking in the QS Asia University Rankings
(2016) index for publications show its faculty as highly productive, with an 84.4 grade out of 100
in papers per faculty. Also, the relevance of research can be inferred by the 99.5 grade out of
100 in citations per paper.
Finally, administrators are responsible for defining goals, resources, and procedures
involved with hiring and retaining high quality faculty. A significant part of this stakeholder
group are heads of departments and chairs of hiring committees throughout the four schools and
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22
20 departments, charged with conducting hiring processes. A demonstration of the proactive
approach to recruiting was the 2016 “Cluster Hiring” initiative, which leveraged the celebrations
for the 25
th
anniversary of the university to recruit faculty in the five areas of priority for
HKUST. The 2015-16 Annual Report (2016), also highlighted the efforts to recruit outside
faculty and senior management to bring fresh outside views and strengthen diversity.
Stakeholder Group for the Study
Although all the groups listed above played and continue to play an important role in
HKUST’s success in attracting and retaining high quality international faculty, the stakeholder
group of focus for this study were the administrators. More specifically, the focus is on senior
and mid-level management responsible for implementing and supporting the university’s goals to
hire and keep high quality non-local faculty. There was a degree of complexity in studying this
stakeholder group as roles and responsibilities seem to be shared, complemented, and even
overlapped at different levels and departments. While HR operationally puts together
compensation packages, announces positions and collects applications, heads of departments,
deans, as well as the provost and even the president, are involved with critical parts of the
process, including interviewing and making final hiring decisions. Targeting an internal
stakeholder group with direct impact on the overall university goal made this promising practice
feasible. Faculty were also interviewed as a way to gain insights into how they respond to the
incentives, policies, and external contextual push-pull factors that influenced their decision to
take a job at HKUST.
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this project was to study HKUST’s performance related to the larger
problem of practice of faculty internationalization. The analysis focused on HKUST
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23
administrators’ assets in the areas of knowledge and skill, motivation, and organizational
resources. While a complete study would focus on all stakeholders, for practical purposes the
stakeholder focus in this analysis were senior and mid-level administrators in charge of
implementing and supporting the university’s goal to recruit and retain international faculty.
As such, the questions that guided the promising practice study are the following:
1. What knowledge, motivation and organizational assets underpin HKUST administrators’
efforts to recruit and retain a large percentage of international faculty?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and administrators’
knowledge and motivation?
3. What recommendations in the areas of knowledge, motivation, and organizational
resources may be appropriate for solving the problem of faculty internationalization at
another organization?
Conceptual and Methodological Framework
The theoretical framework for this study was the push-pull model used in migration
studies (Lee, 1966); and the methodology adopted was Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis.
Since this is a promising practice, the methodology was adapted to facilitate the understanding of
goals achievement in context of the organization of focus. Descriptive statistics were used in this
qualitative case study. The relevant literature and other sources of accumulated knowledge was
the basis for assumed knowledge, motivation and organizational assets. Document analysis,
content analysis, interviews and literature review were used to assess these influences.
Research-based good practices and recommendations are presented as a result of thorough
evaluation.

FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

24
Definitions
Brain Drain: Designates the international transfer of resources in the form of human
capital and mainly applies to the migration of relatively highly educated individuals from
developing to developed countries (Beine et al., 2008).
Comprehensive Internationalization: A commitment, confirmed through action, to infuse
international and comparative perspectives throughout the teaching, research, and service
missions of higher education. It shapes institutional ethos and values and touches the entire
higher education enterprise. It is essential that it be embraced by institutional leadership,
governance, faculty, students, and all academic services and support units. It is an institutional
imperative, not just a desirable possibility (Hudizik, 2014).
Globalization: The context of economic and academic trends that are part of the reality of
the 21
st
century (Altbach & Knight, 2007).
Internationalization: Includes policies and practices undertaken by academic systems and
institutions–and even individuals–to cope with the global academic environment (Altbach &
Knight, 2007).
Organization of the Project
Five chapters are used to organize this study. Chapter One provides the reader with a
broad view of faculty internationalization as a problem of practice in the field of higher
education. It introduces the key concepts and terminology commonly found in a discussion
about internationalization, globalization, and faculty internationalization. The promising practice
organization is presented along with its mission and goals. Three key stakeholder groups’
performance is discussed, and the stakeholder group of focus for the study identified. The
purpose of the study and research questions are presented and the initial concepts of push-pull
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

25
and gap analysis introduced. Chapter Two provides a comprehensive review of current literature
surrounding faculty internationalization. Topics include key motivation to internationalization of
faculty, leadership support, faculty engagement, and organizational structure and culture are
addressed. Chapter Three details the assumed assets, choice of participants, data collection and
analysis. In Chapter Four, the data and results are described and analyzed. Chapter Five provides
recommendation for practice, based on data and literature as well as recommendations of good
practices that might be replicated by other HEIs.

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26
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter starts by reviewing higher education internationalization trends, motivations
and the key stakeholders involved in this process. Subsequently, it looks at the literature
pertaining to faculty internationalization, its definitions, factors influencing the decision to
relocate, and issues of knowledge flow and concentration in the form of “brain drain”, “brain
gain,” and “brain circulation.”
The literature covering the evolution and current status of world-class Asian universities
informed how global centers of knowledge have been impacted by these institutions, and how
leading research institutions are related to nation-state development. The chapter then reviews
studies on the process of hiring, integrating, and retaining international faculty, including global
competition and policies at the institution level. The chapter concludes with a review of learning
and motivation theories, and considerations for administrators’ knowledge, motivations, and
organizational factors and influences related to the hiring, integration and retention of
international faculty.
Internationalization in Higher Education
Current Trends in Internationalization
The extensive literature on internationalization of higher education demonstrates that it is
not a new phenomenon; in fact, Wildavsky (2010) describes a prominent movement of students,
scholars and ideas during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Europe. Internationalization of
higher education is also a way for nation-states to respond to the forces of globalization, which
tend to blur national borders through free trade, the movement of people, and rapid technological
advancements (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Chan, 2004; Hudzik, 2011). While globalization is an
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

27
imperative, internationalization can be a manageable conduit to foster engagement with other
nations and institutions (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Burnett & Huisman, 2009; Chan, 2004).
Higher education institutions have a long tradition of developing internationalization
strategies as they have reacted to international market forces, geopolitics, and global learning
(Burnett & Huisman, 2009; Chan, 2004; Wildavsky, 2010). For centuries, universities have been
among the most internationalized institutions in society (Cantwell, 2011; Mahroum, 2000; Scott,
2015). Nevertheless, the period following World War II witnessed a focus on trade liberalization
and technological advancements that propelled globalization (Ruther, 2014; de Wit, 2002). In
the later part of the 20
th
century, internationalization gained importance for higher education at
the regional, national and institutional levels (Knight, 2004). For most leaders in the field,
internationalization became the next frontier and many institutions sought to implement
internationalization initiatives in the form of study abroad programs, exchange programs,
recruitment of international students, recruitment of international faculty, and
internationalization of curriculum and programs (Hudzik, 2011).
More recently, institutions have engaged in assessing the results and benefits of such
international initiatives (Parsons, 2009). There is a growing understanding that
internationalization must be seen as a tool to assist institutions in achieving their mission and
goals. This understanding helps to put things into perspective as the internationalization level
each institution seeks is directly related to its position as a local, regional or global institution.
Independent of how and to what degree individual institutions engage in internationalization, the
idea of comprehensive internationalization helps institutions develop strategies and policies that
aim to develop an international dimension to everything the organization does, as opposed to
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

28
implementing isolated programs with an international focus (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Hudzik,
2011).
Critical voices of the negative impacts of globalization and internationalization have
made a case for the inequities generated by the concentration of knowledge in highly
industrialized regions (Adnett, 2010; Altbach & Knight, 2007; Rizvi & Lingard, 2010;
Suspitsyna, 2015). At the moment, the rise of political leaders with strong nationalist agendas,
specifically in, but not limited to, Europe and the United States, is adding another layer of
complexity and concern to the role of universities and their global engagement (Altbach & de
Wit, 2017).
Although not well documented in the literature, increasing faculty internationalization is
a trend seen around the world (Scott, 2015). In many ways, faculty mobility reflects and
characterizes the inequalities of knowledge concentration, as faculty tend to move from
underdeveloped regions, or peripheries, to academic centers (Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley,
2009).
Motivations to Internationalize
By adhering to the notion of internationalization as a means to better equip an education
system at the national level, or for a single institution to achieve its goal and fulfill a mission, the
literature presents four rationales for internationalization: academic, socio-cultural, political, and
economic (de Wit 1995, 2000; Garson, 2015; Knight & de Wit, 1999; Knight, 2004). Academic
motivations seek to acquire global knowledge through research and teaching, quality
improvement, and compliance to international standards. Socio-cultural motivation implies
cross-cultural exchange, awareness and understanding, national identity, and community
development. Political motivation includes exercising and expanding influence, peace, or issues
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29
of national security. The United States, for instance, has historically maintained an inward-
looking society and education system. It was not until the late 1950s, motivated by issues of
national security, that initiatives such as the National Defense Education Act, or USAID,
supported projects in education, and the Fulbright program signaled a changing attitude towards
better understanding of the world (Biddle, 2002; Hudzik, 2011). The final rationale for
internationalization is economic, which relates to local and global competitiveness, labor markets
and financial incentives of international activities.
Key Internationalization Stakeholders
Faculty. Comprehensive internationalization cannot happen if faculty do not choose to
incorporate it in their teaching and research projects. If the core business of higher education
institutions is to teach and research, and the key agents in making that happen (delivering) are
the faculty members; their support is critical (Stohl, 2007). The level of faculty support,
however, can be a reflection of institutional commitment to internationalization by creating the
necessary reward systems, policies and funding that value faculty international engagement
(Childress, 2010; Dewey & Duff, 2009; Hudzik, 2011; Stohl, 2007).
The importance of faculty as a key stakeholder, not only in internationalization but in all
academic processes, can also be understood from Terosky and O’Meara’s (2011) agency theory.
Agency means that individuals manage their own lives and careers in the pursuit of meaningful
work, effective contributions, and professional passion. The authors explain that agency can be
observed through how faculty define their priorities and the relationships that are built to support
achieving life and career goals. When comparing the principles of agency with Stohl’s (2007)
observed factors of successful implementation of international programs, such as study abroad,
he credits success to faculty with whom he had good relationships and had access to funding to
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

30
prioritize those activities. For him, even the advances obtained in the different fronts of
internationalization in teaching, research and service, do not reach their full potential without
faculty support. Stohl explained that faculty exercise power in their interaction with students by
controlling who gets what, when and how; and collectively, in their departments, they also make
decisions about the structures of rewards, recognition and compensation, which determines the
path for career advancement and sets the standard for junior faculty to follow.
Another perspective on faculty engagement with international activities has to do with the
different cultures of each field of study, as the common beliefs and values shared by disciplines
shape how agency is exercised, thus defining priorities and relationships (Stohl, 2007). These
ideas are corroborated by Childress (2010), who also highlighted the importance of policy
structures that recognize and reward global engagement from faculty and are followed by
strategic funding that aligns with such policies.
The engagement or resistance of faculty to actively participate in and support
internationalization initiatives is critical for institutions pursuing such goals (Hudzik, 2012). One
way institutions address this challenge is the growing trend of hiring faculty with a global
profile. The American Council on Education’s (ACE) report on tenure internationalization
(Helms, 2015) argued that in order to equip students with 21
st
century skills, it is necessary to
have globally competent faculty that are willing to include a global prospective in teaching,
research and service. According to ACE’s 2011 Mapping Internationalization report (Green,
Luu, & Burris, 2012), participating institutions indicated a preference for faculty with
international exposure and experience, and the interest in such a faculty profile increased from
32% in 2006 to 68% in 2011.
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

31
Administrators. Setting the tone and creating the conditions for the development of a
culture that embraces and supports internationalization depends greatly on the discourse and
actions of senior administrators, especially the president, deans and the senior
internationalization officer. Their decisions to give voice, recognize, support and allocate
resources to international initiatives is essential (Hudzik, 2011).
The strategic decisions taken by administrators to prioritize internationalization has to
match the organizational mission and must be supported by policies and strategic financial
resources to implement these initiatives (Childress, 2010; Dewey & Duff, 2009). The risks for
administrators in the process of internationalization has to do with the competing academic
functions that all stakeholders are involved with and pressures to perform and deliver.
Administrators can fail in the attempt to internationalize or be discredited in their good intentions
if the discourse is not supported by a well-developed strategy, incentives for faculty, removal of
existing barriers, and secured sources of funding (Hudzik, 2011; Stohl, 2007).
Students. On the receiving end of educational services, students are directly involved
and their learning experiences are expected to be enhanced by internationalization activities.
From a student perspective, internationalization most frequently takes the form of study abroad
programs, interaction between local and international students on campus, language learning, and
curriculum internationalization (Green et al., 2012; Parsons, 2009). Students are the reason why
higher education institutions seek constant improvement; therefore, the pursuit of greater levels
of internationalization has to do with providing students with more comprehensive learning
experiences to develop the much needed 21
st
century skills (Altbach & Teichler, 2001).
Students and their families are increasingly important not only because they are the
clients of colleges and universities, but also because the growing budgetary pressures on
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32
governments are moving resources away from higher education institutions, increasing oversight,
and transferring costs to students and families, many of whom make life-long financial
commitments to access tertiary education (Altbach, 2006; Miller, 2010). More than ever,
students are concerned with the value of the degree they are obtaining from a university in
comparison to other career paths and forms of education, thus exercising their power of choice
(Wilkins, Shams, & Huisman, 2013).
Another important component of internationalization is the recruitment of foreign
students. Institutions often engage in such initiatives because it contributes to campus and
curriculum internationalization, and at the same time, generates tuition revenues that are
increasingly critical for universities (West & Addington, 2014). However, as institutions cater to
more diverse populations of students, the necessary support infrastructures need to be created so
that true integration of local and international students take place and the highly-praised benefits
of these cultural and academic exchanges are realized (Aw, 2011; Leong, 2015).
Employers. Business operations and dealings in a more interconnected world have
become increasingly complex, requiring more sophisticated human capital. These workers must
be able to operate and make decisions with an understanding of how global issues are impacting
an industry or particular business (Billett, 2014). Corporations need to understand the nuances of
doing business in different cultural settings and languages, and be prepared to address challenges
and take advantage of opportunities beyond local markets. Governments, industry sectors, and
individual companies have aligned interests in developing highly-skilled individuals for the
knowledge economy, and universities are expected to produce such professionals (Kashkan &
Egorova, 2015; Knight, 2004).
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33
Preparing job-ready individuals is an important part of the mission of colleges and
universities. This concern is partly illustrated by the emergence of employability rankings, such
as QS Top Universities and Times Higher Education. In many ways, employers influence
universities’ decisions regarding skills that make students more competitive and which programs
are best suited to train professionals for existing job market opportunities. In the United States,
employers have voiced the desire for more internationalized curriculum and global engagement
at American universities (American Council on Education [ACE], 2008; Association of
American Colleges and Universities [AACU], 2009).
Faculty Internationalization
Defining International Faculty
There is a dearth of literature on the need for, importance of, and implications of
international faculty, and how one defines an international faculty varies. It is normally left to
individual institutions to define what constitutes an international faculty. Even nationality,
which can be an objective way of differentiating between someone that is local versus foreign,
gets confused in countries with strong assimilation policies, such as Canada and the United
States. In these countries, once someone obtains legal residency, they are often reported as
locals. A few authors also consider those who are originally from one country but went abroad
for their undergraduate or graduate education, as internationals. In other contexts, these
individuals are called “returnees.” Issues related to length of stay and type of contract faculty
have with host institutions also add to the complexity of definition. This study used the
combined definition of nationality and origin of post-secondary degrees to define international
faculty (Cradden, 2007; Sagara, 2014; Yudkevich, Altbach, & Rumbley, 2016).
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

34
Diversity of nationality. While one would think that nationality, country or origin, or
passport would be a clear way of differentiating local versus international faculty, and therefore
serve as a parameter to gauge the share of such professionals within a certain education system
or a single institution, the truth is that it is not that simple (Huang, Finkelstein, & Rostan, 2014;
Yudkevich et al., 2016). Different countries approach the nationality indicator differently. In the
United States, once citizenship is obtained, that individual is no longer counted as international.
In Canada, country of birth and origin of the most advanced degree is the norm, even after
obtaining citizenship. In Saudi Arabia, where it is rare for a foreign-born person to obtain
citizenship, all non-Saudi citizens are considered international (Yudkevich et al., 2016).
Diversity of origin of degree. In addition to diversity of nationality, institutions also
consider the country where a degree was earned to define a faculty member as international. For
some institutions or education systems, the criteria can be where the first post-secondary degree
was obtained (Yudkevich et al., 2016), while for others the terminal degree is the defining factor
(Sagara, 2014).
The Push-Pull Model
One of the frameworks proposed to understand the factors influencing the mobility of
faculty is the push-pull model (Cradden, 2007). Lee (1966) originally developed migration
theory to explain the movement of people based on positive and negative factors at the country
or region of origin, defined as push factors. Similarly, positive and negative factors at the
country of destination are defined as pull factors. The model is complemented by intervening
factors, understood as the natural or imposed facilitations or barriers to migrate. This approach
was later adapted to understand the movement of international students and to inform regional
and institutional strategies to attract those students (Chen, 2007). Cradden (2007) applied the
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

35
push-pull model in combination with labor forces of supply and demand to explain the
movement of academic staff in the European Union, thus considering both economic and non-
economic factors influencing the decision to move. He borrowed a list of push and pull factors
applied to health care professionals and argued that they are suitable to understand academic
staff mobility. Cradden added research resources as an additional factor considered by
academics.
Table 1
Push and Pull Factors in the Migration of Health-Care Professionals
Push Factors Pull Factors
Inadequate compensation

Better Compensation

Poor working conditions/job dissatisfaction Better working conditions/greater job
Satisfaction
Work-related hazards Safer work environment

Lack of career opportunities Greater career opportunities

Poor quality of life Better quality of life

Political instability/war/ethnic conflict Political stability

Lack of opportunities (educational etc.) for
Children
Greater opportunities for children

A comprehensive study was conducted in 28 countries to compare the purchasing power
of salaries and benefits of entry-level, average and top-level academic professionals. One of the
objectives of the study was to evaluate whether compensation provided a middle-class standard
of living within the context of each country. The study found that in many countries, faculty
compensation still did not meet that minimum standard, and this is an important parameter to
partially explain the movement of academic staff in search of better living conditions (Altbach,
Reisberg, Yudkevich, Androushchak, & Pacheco, 2012). The described economic approach fits
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36
the traditional movement of academic professionals from the knowledge and economic periphery
to the center (Altbach, 1981), also frequently presented in the literature as brain drain (Docquier
& Rapoport, 2009).
National policies pertaining to international faculty. All universities are part of
regional contexts and often play a key strategic role in social and economic development of a
given country, especially publicly funded research universities (Postiglione, 2011). Given
national interests and priorities, governments support the establishment and development of
universities in a variety of ways, but most importantly funding and the necessary regulatory
frameworks that best serve national interests and the fulfilment of the university’s mission
(Altbach, 2011). In this contextual approach, national policy can have a direct impact on an
institution’s desire to internationalize by attracting international students and faculty (Horta,
2009). It is important that institutional goals be aligned with national priorities and policies,
especially in the areas of immigration, research and development goals, student status, working
permits, excessive bureaucracy, and other barriers (Salmi, 2011). A telling measure of the level
of openness and engagement in attracting highly skilled human capital is reflected in
immigration laws. Some countries have developed policies aligned with higher education needs
to serve a growing demand resulting from expansion of access or in pursuit of strategic
internationalization and competitiveness (Helms, Rumbley, Brajkovic, & Mihut, 2015; de Wit,
Hunter, Howard & Egron-Polack, 2015).
Concentration of Knowledge
Brain drain. The impact of brain drain have been an evolving subject in the literature
and the focus of numerous empirical and theoretical studies, mainly in the field of economics
(Schiff, 2006). The movement of highly skilled professionals from developing to developed
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37
countries, described as brain drain, most often has a negative connotations, indicating a loss of
human capital for the country of origin and therefore hindering its opportunities for development
(Grubel & Scott, 1966). However, more recent research has suggested that the negative impact
of brain drain may not be as severe as anticipated, and that in the long-term it could have a net
positive impact for countries with open immigration policies as individuals seeking to immigrate
would look for better education and qualification, and also, upon their eventual return, they have
more skills, thus elevating the overall pool of skills and human capital at the country of origin
(Stark, Helmenstein, & Prskawetz, 1997). Alluding to that same idea, there is also an argument
that the initial loss of human capital, knowledge and productivity is eventually offset by future
interactions and exchanges made possible by the presence of these nationals in foreign lands, and
by their eventual return home (Beine et al., 2008; Docquier & Rapoport, 2009).
Increasingly, a more balanced view of the losers and winners in the process has evolved
to claim that each country’s situation is different. While in some cases the brain drain does
revert positively to the country of origin, such as India with the IT workers and China with the
return of the Chinese academic diaspora; in other cases, it might be in the best interest of certain
countries to develop policies to prevent the drain. Examples of the latter would be scientists
leaving Europe and medical professionals from Sub-Saharan African countries (Docquier &
Rapoport, 2009; Schiff, 2006).
Brain gain. In October 2016, President Barak Obama said the following during the
White House Frontiers Conference at Carnegie Mellon University “We’re the nation that just had
six of our scientists and researchers win Nobel Prizes — and every one of them was an
immigrant.”
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38
The World Bank report on Global Talent Flow (Kerr, Kerr, Ozden, & Parsons, 2016),
revealed that in 2010 there were 28 million highly-skilled workers who left their country of birth
and moved to OECD countries. It represents a 130% increase since 1990. The study also showed
a high concentration of these immigrants in four OECD countries, the United States, United
Kingdom, Canada and Australia, where, not coincidentally, the highest concentration of the best
universities, research centers, and high-tech industries are found. The United States alone has
been the destination for about half of all highly-skilled immigrants among OECD countries and
one-third of the world’s population of such mobile professionals. As noted by the study, factors
motivating such an increase is related to policies in destination countries, overall quality of life,
availability of skilled human capital, decline in transportation cost, and the increasing number of
students seeking education internationally.
Straubhaar (2000) used the United States as a model for an economy and society that
thrives on welcoming highly-skilled individuals and academics as an essential component of the
economy and development. He compared the economic gains for the US, starting with tuition
paid by foreign students, all the way to an entire industry that evolves around education services
and long-term and enduring gains based on the contributions of those who stay in the United
States and the ones that go back to their countries but still cultivate their life-long American
connections and way of life. Similar patterns of strategic attraction of skilled professionals has
long been adopted by countries such as Canada and Australia, which since the 1980s have
introduced systems that qualify individuals interested in immigrating (Beine et al., 2008).
However, there are arguments contrary to the widely-perceived benefits of brain gain. Statistical
analysis conducted by Schiff (2006), showed that brain gains can be significantly smaller due to,
among other factors, increasing unskilled immigration, general equilibrium effects, and brain
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39
waste; where skilled immigrants perform jobs requiring much lower qualifications then they
actually possess.
Brain circulation. An important concept that emerged from the discussions of gains and
losses in the flow of highly-skilled professionals is the concept of brain circulation, in which
more balanced flows take place and net gains and losses are equalized (Straubhaar, 2000). The
European Union, with a free flow of academics and professionals within the block, can serve as
an example of brain exchange or circulation. However, the term is also used to argue the long-
term offsetting effects of brain drain. One of the most convincing examples is that of India,
involving the Indian diaspora and the rise of the IT sector in India. In 2009, India was second
only to the Philippines in providing qualified professionals to OECD countries, but was able to
capitalize the transfer and diffusion of knowledge between Indians abroad, Indians that never
left, and highly trained and prepared returnees (Docquier & Rapoport, 2009). Along those lines,
Saxenian (2005) and Freidman (2005) brought light to a new dynamic of business made possible
by fast advancements in information technology. New developments and technological
advancements achieved in countries such as India, China and Taiwan, to a great degree, was due
to the presence of engineers of these nationalities in high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. For
Saxenian (2005), this was the materialization of brain circulation as many of these US-educated
professionals returned home to establish relationships or open businesses.
Like highly skilled professionals in other fields, academic staff and researchers are
important agents of knowledge circulation, and as such, contribute to minimizing the impacts of
brain drain (Mahroum, 2000; Postiglione, 2013).
New forms of mobility. Recently, a more nuanced view of the push-pull model and the
reasons for faculty mobility and its wider impact has been proposed by Scott (2015). Scott found
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40
it necessary to expand from the fixed notions of brain drain, brain gain and brain circulation to a
more fluid development and formation of global communities, and that the concepts consolidated
in the 20
th
century may not fully describe the dynamics of the 21
st
century, in which mobility is
less fixed and all faculty must be globally competent and connected in some shape or form.
van de Bunt-Kokhuis (2001) makes a distinction between “real” and “virtual” mobility to
differentiate between traditional relocation and virtual connections and interactions aided by
communication technologies. As the forms of mobility continue to evolve, concepts such as
short-term exchange, temporary expatriation, intellectual tourists and commuter faculty are
incorporated to the literature, thus reflecting practices in higher education international activities
and new modalities of mobility (Mihut, de Gayardon, & Rudt, 2016).
It is increasingly more common for faculty to engage in short-term mobility projects, for
a semester, a year, or even just a couple of weeks. These exchanges, even though limited in
comparison to the impact of traditional relocation, when combined with the technological tools
that facilitate communication at a very low cost, provide the opportunity for collaborations that
would otherwise not occur (Altbach & Yudkevich, 2016).
Hiring and Retaining International Faculty
While the literature on the mobility of students is abundant, there is a lack of attention
and data regarding the movement of faculty. Where research exists, it is concentrated on the
movement of scholars from less developed countries to centers of knowledge. The economic
logic of such movement is representative of the concentration of knowledge in certain parts of
the world (Yudkevich et al., 2016). Faculty most frequently move in search of better living and
working conditions, but issues beyond monetary compensation, such as opportunities to advance
professionally and integration in the life of the institution and society, can be critical for
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41
retention. Therefore, these factors influence the sustainability of hiring strategies for attracting
international scholars (Altbach & Salmi, 2011).
Hiring and retaining international faculty is largely subject to immigration and work-
permit policies set by national governments, which is influenced by the real or perceived notions
of the need and importance of these professionals. When the overall external conditions are
conducive to attracting international faculty, institutions have to develop or adjust internal set of
policies to address the complexities of hiring international faculty (Albach & Yudkevich, 2016).
Although a growing trend, considering all of the benefits and opportunities associated
with hiring international faculty, it is important to be aware of the many challenges associated
with it. HEIs face competition to hire the best professionals, to offer competitive salaries and
benefits, and to retain such professionals in the long-term. Even for institutions operating within
a favorable policy and economic environment, it requires a high degree of commitment and
strategic planning for the success and sustainability of faculty internationalization (Helms, 2015).
Competition for High Quality Faculty
In the context of a more globalized world, the discourse of a global war and competition
for talent has become the predominant voice among businesses, academia and governments
(Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001). In analyzing the implication of this model and
the increase of inequalities, Brown and Tannock (2009) explained that this widely accepted and
adopted model is based on the idea of a linear correlation between level of instruction and
earnings, which has motivated the massification of higher education among a wide range of
countries and the development of policies to allow nations to better compete for the best and
brightest.
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42
Universities are at the center of the war for talent as they are both tasked with producing
future leaders, innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs for the knowledge society, and at the
same time demand highly qualified faculty to advance their mission goals (Cantwell, 2011). In
this highly competitive scenario, entrepreneurial universities act as quasi-firms to nurture close,
symbiotic, and complementary relations with large private companies to actively develop patents
(Slaughter & Leslie, 1997). In academic capitalism, companies are also formed as a result of
academic activities that generate market solutions. Under this model, it is natural that such
institutions compete for students, faculty, and other resources. Increasingly, higher education
institutions are seeking to consolidate their positioning through global marketing strategies to
build brand and reputation differentiation (Wildavsky, 2012).
Structuring attractive compensation packages. In analyzing the mobility of
postdoctoral scholars in the United States and the United Kingdom, Cantwell (2011) posited the
idea of a combination of policy, funding, personal agency and contextual circumstances to
understand academic flows, thus recognizing how challenging it is for an institution to try to
influence or drive this process. Nevertheless, among the most tangible elements to become a
competitive destination for international faculty, the capacity to offer attractive compensation
packages is critical. In most places around the world, faculty expect to be paid enough to
maintain at least middle-class living standards (Altbach et al., 2012). When these basic
conditions are not met, low salary become a major push factor for faculty to look for
opportunities elsewhere (Altbach, 2012; Cantwell, 2011; Cradden, 2007). Although financial
compensation may not be the main motivation for faculty career decisions, the perception of
professional upward mobility is important, and it is normally signaled by an increase in income,
better working conditions, prestige of the institution and in many instances, a tenured position
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43
(Postiglione & Altbach, 2012). Also, while local faculty consider compensation from a
purchasing power perspective of a given country’s context, international faculty tend to use the
monetary exchange rate as a reference for comparison, and expect to receive salaries that are
comparable to those of universities in developed nations (Altbach & Yudkevich, 2016).
Compensation should be broadly considered to include benefits beyond salary.
Timberman (2013), in discussing the Peking University strategy to attract international faculty,
lists, in addition to high salaries, jobs for spouses, international schooling for children, and full-
tenure, among other incentives. More recently, a less tangible but not less important aspect of
international faculty recruitment that is frequently present in the literature, is the emotional and
ethnic appeal with which certain diaspora groups are approached (Postiglione, 2012; Salmi,
2012).
At the founding of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in South
Korea, a significant percentage of faculty positions were filled by renowned Korean scientists
who returned to the country with a sense of commitment to the advancement of Korea. This
desire to make a contribution to Korea was coupled with excellent infrastructure to do research, a
light teaching schedule, a sabbatical year for every six years of work, a salary that was among
the highest in Korea and support with housing near the campus (Rhee, 2011). Malaysia and
Singapore followed a similar model to attract the diaspora with very attractive compensation and
working conditions. At the National University of Singapore, salaries are adjusted annually
according to market rates, in an attempt to attract new and retain current faculty (Mukherjee &
Wong, 2011). According to Postiglione (2011), Hong Kong too inserted the ethnic and
emotional components to its recruiting strategy to attract faculty of Chinese descent. The ending
of colonial times and return of the region to the People’s Republic of China was a critical lever
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44
for this purpose. However, although salaries were not the most important factor, especially for
top recruits, they had to be adjusted to reach levels comparable to those offered in Western
universities. To this end, policies had to be changed to detach faculty salaries from those of
public servants and to be more flexible.
A discussion that precedes competitiveness of salaries and benefits packages, is the one
about universities ability to secure funding that allows for the ambitious and expensive endeavor
of attracting international faculty. Steady flows of funding are a challenge for any organization,
and even more for public universities that are heavily dependent on government resources that
tend to fluctuate according to the overall country economic situation (Sonin, Khovanskaya, &
Yudkevich, 2008). Financial soundness, therefore is placed as the foundation of faculty
internationalization and the condition for sustainable implementation.
Sustaining faculty internationalization. Sustaining a strategy of internationalized
faculty require resources, alignment between national and institutional policies, and a culture of
integration and retention (Sonin et al., 2008). While the challenges associated with recruiting are
many, it requires permanent institutional commitment to make sure that newly hired faculty and
their families receive the necessary support to adapt and operate at their best capacity (Pherali,
2012). However, Postiglione (2011) pointed out that even for the best financially resourced
universities, a strategy that is based on continuously hiring faculty from abroad is not sustainable
in the long-term.
Traditionally, universities have created pipelines of future faculty through their doctoral
programs; this is very common in consolidated higher education systems such as in Europe, the
United States, Australia and Canada (Balasooriya, Asante, Jayasinha, & Razee, 2014; Lutz &
Ransdell, 2003). For universities with ambitious internationalization goals, this partially
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

45
explains the importance of international students, since many of them pursue further studies and
academic careers, thus contributing to the pipeline of international faculty (Scott, 2015). This
system did not exist in Asia 30 years ago, when the majority of higher education institutions
were basically teaching colleges; therefore they had to reach out internationally for qualified
staff. Although countries like Singapore, Korea, China and Hong Kong continue to do substantial
international recruitment, a process of indigenization is in process (Postiglione, 2011).
Another aspect of sustainable faculty internationalization has to do with the adoption of
English as language of instruction and how that influences the overall culture of the university.
For Altbach and Teichler (2001), in 13
th
century Europe, internationalization was in full course
due to a common academic language, Latin, in which students of different nationalities could
receive instruction. Today, English is the new Latin. While many non-English speaking
countries make efforts to include certain English-only subjects and programs, universities that
are able to use English as the predominant language of instruction, publication and business are
better suited to attract and maintain international students and faculty (Postiglione & Ailei,
2016).
Institutional Policies Pertaining to International Faculty
Institutions that wish to increase the number of international academic professionals need
to develop or adapt policies that facilitate the process of hiring and integrating faculty. Factors
such as cultural differences, languages, teaching practices, and expectations related to
compensation and career advancements have to be considered. These important issues need to
be addressed to avoid difficulties that may affect the institution, as well as individuals and
families involved in the process (Helms, 2015; Teichler, 2015). Key internal policy issues that
universities should be concerned with include the local versus international faculty relationship,
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46
career advancement plans, integration in the community and faculty governance, and financial
commitment (Horta, 2009; Mihut et al., 2016).
Because of the complexity of the process of attracting and retaining international faculty,
there is no set of rules or best practices of success to follow (Dedoussis, 2007). However, there is
general agreement that hiring and promotion policies developed for local hires normally need
adjustment to accommodate international faculty (Altbach & Yudkevich, 2016). At the same
time, there is growing concern with policies that create too much of a gap between local and
international faculty, as the latter tend to get differentiated compensation packages and
privileges. The coexistence of parallel systems and rules can, and normally do, generate
conflicts, and highly internationalized institutions seek to equalize the working conditions and
benefits for the two groups of faculty (Postiglione & Ailei, 2016).
Integration of international and local faculty. The level of integration pursued by each
institution may vary according to its final objective for hiring international faculty, and it is also
affected by the larger sociocultural context of life outside the university (Saltmarsh & Swirski,
2010). Models of full integration, in which new faculty have all the conditions to participate in
the academic, administrative, and governance structure of the university, tend to be more
sustainable. Situations where there are differentiated treatment, rights, access to information, or
career advancement plans between local and international faculty may lead to conflicts and
eventually the resignation of faculty (Jepsen et al., 2014).
Altbach and Yudkevich (2016) noted that lack of effective integration policies can result
in underutilization of international faculty potential to contribute not only to globalization but all
aspects of the university mission. This may be caused by lack of familiarization in the cultural
context of the organization, the politics, and limitations to participate in the governance structure
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47
and functions beyond teaching (Mamiseishvili & Rosser, 2011). The end goal of integration is to
retain faculty and achieve the levels of productivity, regardless of nationality and cultural
differences, necessary to meet institutional goals (Scott, 2015; Welch, 2008).
The Evolution of Asian Universities
The development of Asian universities is strongly related to national economic
development and competitiveness (Wang, Wang, & Liu, 2011). The pursuit of world-class
universities status in Asia is most often based on the American model of universities that
combines entrepreneurism and internationalization. Being an entrepreneurial university implies
going beyond traditional roles of teaching and research to have strong links with industry, spin-
off companies resulting from research projects, licensing, and active technology transfer offices,
thus composing an important system of national economic growth. This model of
entrepreneurial university is also described in the more critical literature as academic capitalism
(Rhoades, Maldonado-Maldonado, Ordorika & Velazquez, 2004). Internationalization, in turn,
entails attracting top international students and faculty, maintaining high volumes of publications
and citations, adopting English as language of instruction and a flow of academic returnees who
either worked or obtained a terminal degree abroad (Timberman, 2013).
The emergence of research and Asian world-class universities is best understood in
context of historical events, the rapid economic growth in the second half of the 20
th
century, and
changes in the structure of the national economic matrix: moving from mainly manufacturing-
based to a more sophisticated knowledge and services-based economy (Postiglione, 2011). One
of the responses in dealing with such transformation was the development of higher education
institutions that were able to sustainably adapt to the new reality (Altbach & Salmi, 2011).
Given the stakes for Asian countries, a series of government-led policies and programs were put
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48
in place, such as Brain Korea 21 (BK21), projects 985 and 211 in China, and the TOP30 in Japan
(Timberman, 2013). The QS World University Ranking (2016) lists 62 Asian universities
among the top 200 universities in the world.
In 1995, the Chinese government issued the 211 Project with the objective of developing
100 universities that would lead the country’s pursuit of socio-economic development and
international competitiveness. Approximately US$5.44 billion was invested in a concerted effort
by the Ministries of Education and Finance, local governments, and universities. These funds
were allocated primarily in disciplinary development, infrastructure, information technology and
faculty development. The 211 Project was soon followed by the 985 Project in 1998, which
enhanced the commitment and investments in the development of higher education by selecting
39 universities as key research centers. The almost US$5 billion investment from 1999 to 2007
was heavily concentrated in the nine so called “Chinese Ivy League” schools designated to
achieve and maintain world-class status (Wang et al., 2011).
In South Korea, a great transformation of the higher education system took place in the
last quarter of the 20
th
century, after the creation of the Korean Science and Engineering
Foundation in 1977, the Korean Research Foundation in 1981, and the entrance of various
private sector players in the higher education space (Rhee, 2011). More recently, the
government developed policies to increase subsidies through programs such the Brain Korea 21
and World Class University projects (Rhee, 2011).
Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong share some similarities due to their historical
connections to the British under colonial rule. In more contemporary times, all three countries
have invested heavily in the development of their higher education systems and seek world-class
university status. Moreover, these countries had few natural resources, so the future depended
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49
on adapting to a new knowledge economy to replace the largely manufacturing oriented
economies (Mukherjee & Wong, 2011).
Since the object of this study is a university in Hong Kong, the following sections
explores it in much further detail.
A Reconfiguration of Traditional Centers of Knowledge
In discussing the strategic importance of research universities for the development of
nation-states, Altbach (1997) introduced the notion of peripheries and centers of knowledge. The
best way to understand the center-periphery model is to look at Dependence Theory, a Neo-
Marxist line of thinking that emerged in the 1960s among economists of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC). Dependence theory sought to explain how
the capitalist system is structured by centers composed of developed countries, and peripheries
formed by underdeveloped nations (Raffer & Singer, 2002). In this approach, countries in the
center exploit periphery nations through the control of, among other things, the financial system,
the production of innovation, knowledge and technology, of which, universities are an essential
part. While Altbach (1997) argued that it might be in developing countries’ best interest to
invest and support research universities as a conduit to connect with nodes of knowledge and
innovation through internationalization initiatives, other voices have raised the issue of a new
form of colonialism, an academic one. In this critical view, as universities become more
internationalized, there is a tendency to impose the Western model of development, science and
research on to less developed nations in the periphery of the global knowledge network (Stein,
2016; Stein et al., 2016).
In the midst of this heated discussion, there is a relatively new phenomenon in global
education, the rise of Asian universities, especially in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and South
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50
Korea (Sagara, 2014). The rapid establishment of world-class universities in Southeast Asia has
added new and relevant nodes to the web of centers of knowledge, which have historically been
concentrated in Europe and the United States (Postiglione, 2013; Salmi, 2012). The commitment
to achieve world-class status through excellence in teaching, research, and innovation has been
fueled by the capacity to attract high quality international faculty and also take advantage of
scholars who went abroad to obtain a terminal degree and eventually returned to their home
country (Stein et al., 2016).
The Role of Universities in a Nation-State Development Strategy
The role of universities is better understood if contextualized with their national and
regional purpose. Especially among developing nation-states, governments depend on higher
education institutions to sustain growth in the knowledge economies (Hatakenaka, 2008;
Mukherjee & Wong, 2011). Some institutions are charged with knowledge and capacity
building that directly impacts a country’s socio-economic development and its positioning within
a region or in the world (Postiglione & Altbach, 2012). Specifically addressing the relevance of
research universities, Altbach (2009) argued that countries should invest in such institutions to
conduct knowledge development in areas that are strategic for specific nations. He argued that
because these institutions are so expensive to run, governments have to develop them in
proportion to the countries’ size and economic capacity, suggesting that maybe smaller countries
should combine efforts to form consortia to achieve this goal. Internationalization has led to the
creation of regional policies aimed at normalizing academic standards to facilitate the movement
of faculty and students and strengthen the education systems of participating countries. The best
example of such arrangements is the Bologna Process, in which over 40 countries voluntarily
agree to create standards valid within a higher education common area (Altbach et al., 2010). It
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51
is worth noting, however, that while the regional collaboration model provides an alternative for
development for poorer countries, it also reaffirms the previously discussed center-periphery
model, as economic power still dictates a larger concentration and leadership in terms of research
and development in wealthier countries (Stein, 2016).
Since the mission of research universities is designed to serve a nations’ interest, several
issues related to the use of public goods in internationalization processes and academic
independence come to the surface. Even in places with a high degree of academic freedom and
independence, governments tend to steer education systems and institutions to fulfill a role that is
part of a larger national strategy and for accountability towards tax payers (Jao, 2001;
Postiglione & Ailei, 2016; Postiglione, 2011).
Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region status. Building on the premise that
research universities are strategic for national development (Altbach, 2009), the study took a
closer look at some of the historical and contextual conditions in Hong Kong that favored the
development of several of its universities to world-class status.
Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842 to 1997 and as such, followed the British
legal, economic and education system, becoming a modern symbol of free trade and capitalism
with English as one of its official languages. In 1997, under the Sino-British Declaration, Hong
Kong was to returned to China under the “one country two systems” model and became a highly
independent Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China. This
historical event was of great economic significance for China, since Hong Kong was already
well established as a financial and logistics services hub, with about fifty percent of foreign
direct investment and Chinese imports and exports going through Hong Kong (Huang, 2017). In
this model, the Chinese government agreed that Hong Kong would keep its legal, social and
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52
economic system for fifty years. Hong Kong acts as an independent state in forums like the
World Trade Organization, the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, and even the
Olympics, even though it is part of China.
While the “one country two systems” model has provided Hong Kong universities with
the necessary conditions to continue to thrive, a part of the population, mostly the younger
generation of students, is concerned with the future of Hong Kong autonomy and quasi-
democratic guarantees, which also raises concerns about academic freedom (Lee, 2014;
Postiglione & Ailei, 2016). Popular acts of civil disobedience, such as the Umbrella Movement
in 2014 and the Fishball Revolution in 2016, are indicators of tension between the desire for
independence and the growing influence of the ruling Chinese government (Huang, 2017;
Ortmann, 2015).
Internationalization of Hong Kong universities. Hong Kong has the largest
concentration of world-class universities in the world, but it has not always been this way. Most
of the advancement have taken place over the last 30 years. Historically a trading port and
service providing hub, the ecosystem formed in Hong Kong is favorable for the development of
highly international universities. Having English as one of its official languages, an open society
for expatriates, legal stability, access to capital, and high levels of academic freedom and
independence have been the basis for the rise of Honk Kong universities (Postiglione & Ailei,
2016). The system is composed of eight publicly-funded universities and an increasing number
of private institutions (Lee, 2014).
Lee (2014) suggested that internationalization of Hong Kong universities be looked at
from two perspectives: attraction of international students and capacity to develop and maintain
active working relationships with international universities. In terms of international students,
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53
publicly-funded universities have significantly increased the number of non-local students over
the last 15 years. According to the University Grants Committee (UGC), in 2003-04, non-local
students represented only about four percent of the higher education student population.
Currently, around 16 percent of Hong Kong university students are non-locals (UGC, 2016). In
terms of diversity of international students, it is important to note the strong presence of
Mainland China nationals, which account for 75 percent, followed by 20 percent of students
from other Asian countries, and five percent from other parts of the world (UGC, 2016).
Regarding maintaining working relationships with other universities, it is important to note that
UGC treats Hong Kong’s commitment to internationalization at the same level of its engagement
with Mainland China, and declare these two areas as goals to be pursued by each of the eight
universities (UGC, 2016).
In 2012 UGC carried out a series of strategic dialogs with the heads of all UGC-funded
universities to define the priorities to further develop these two goals of internationalization and
engagement with Mainland China. The dialogs concluded with identifying several institutional
strengths to be cultivated and built upon. They include strong leadership, substantial percentage
of non-local students, openness from local students towards non-locals, and the presence of
international faculty (UGC, 2016).
The dedication of Hong Kong officials and heads of universities to developing highly
internationalized world-class universities is also reflected in the global tables of academic
excellence. The table below shows how the top six Hong Universities appear in the three most
respected rankings: THE World University Rankings 2016-17 (THE, 2017), QS World
University Rankings 2016-17 (QS, 2017), and Academic Rankings of World Universities 2016
(ARWT, 2016).
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54
Table 2
Ranking of Hong Kong’s Top Six Universities
Institution Name THE QS ARWU
University of Hong Kong #43 #27 #101-150
University of Hong Kong Science and Technology #49 #36 #201-300
Chinese University of Hong Kong #76 #44 #201-300
City University of Hong Kong #119 #55 #201-300
Hong Kong Polytechnic University #192 #111 #301-400
Hong Kong Baptist University #351 #278 #401-500

International faculty contribution to Hong Kong universities. The strategy for the
rapid elevation of Hong Kong universities to world-class status clearly included the attraction,
integration and retention of international faculty. These faculty, many times world-renowned
figures, played a critical role in boosting research, creating a diverse and innovative learning
environment, building brand and reputation, and in developing a desirable destination for
students and younger international faculty (Jones, 2009).
Hong Kong universities strategically targeted the large pool of academics of Chinese
decent, who for over 30 years had moved abroad to study, mainly in the United States and
Canada. Many of these academics, who had established themselves as highly respected
scientists in a variety of fields, were targeted by Hong Kong universities that successfully
presented themselves as a viable career alternative and an opportunity to reconnect emotionally
with their motherland to make an impact for the transformation of Hong Kong and Mainland
China (Timberman, 2013). In addition, a booming economy, the cosmopolitan nature of the
society in Hong Kong, the opportunity to work at universities rising to world-class level, to be
able to teach in English, academic freedom to teach and research, publish in English and have
FACULTY INTERNATIONALIZATION AT HKUST

55
papers translated into Mandarin and Cantonese, made Hong Kong the best of the two worlds for
these academic professionals (Postiglione, 2012).
The levels of internationalization and speed in which Hong Kong universities achieved
world-class status is largely credited to their success in attracting high quality academics from
different parts of the world. Star scientists bring their reputation to wherever they go, they
influence other scholars and researchers to come and work with them, and have access to
counterparts in key centers of knowledge and relationships cultivated along their careers
(Hudzik, 2011; Yudkevich et al., 2016). International rankings and reputation is also impacted
by the level of faculty internationalization. Here is how top Hong Kong universities have been
rated on international faculty by one of the main rankings, QS World University Rankings 2016-
17 (QS, 2017). Grades are on a scale of zero to 100.
Table 3
International Faculty QS Ranking Grade
Institution Name QS
University of Hong Kong 100
University of Hong Kong Science and Technology 100
Chinese University of Hong Kong 99.5
City University of Hong Kong 100
Hong Kong Polytechnic University 100
Hong Kong Baptist University 99.4

Administrators’ Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Factors
The gap analysis approach adopted in this study considers that organizational
performance problems reside in three domains: knowledge, motivation and organization factors,
also identified as KMO (Clark & Estes, 2008). In this model, goals have to be structured in a
way that differentiates departments, teams, and ultimately individuals within an organization,
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56
have a clear understanding of their respective goals and expected contributions. The knowledge
domain to closing performance gaps require that individuals know what to do, how to do it, and
are able to think strategically to create innovative ways to solve emerging problems. Along with
knowledge, motivation is a critical and complex factor that affects performance. While it
involves internal psychological processes, it can be observed by the active choices individuals
make to work on a task, the persistence on the task and the mental effort put into it. Finally,
organizational factors include tangible assets like equipment, the physical infrastructure and
policies necessary to execute on the required task, as well as intangible elements of the
organization, such as the shared value-codes and beliefs that constitute the organizational
culture.
Knowledge Influences
Clark and Estes (2008) highlight the importance of knowledge to understand
organizational performance issues. The knowledge influences of what, how, and why pertaining
to a task necessary to reach a goal, are important for the individuals involved with the
organization. A careful analysis of the knowledge influences can inform decisions regarding
which areas of knowledge are sufficient to achieving a goal and determining knowledge deficits
that require attention and action. We sought to understand knowledge in the context of the
literature informing the necessary skills administrators need to successfully attract, hire and
retain international faculty, as well as Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) revision of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Bloom & Krathwohl, 1956), which define the types of knowledge in order of
complexity. The types of knowledge are identified as factual, conceptual, procedural, and
metacognitive. The revised taxonomy also associates the cognitive processes required to
demonstrate the acquisition of each knowledge type upon assessment.
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57
Declarative factual knowledge influences. At the least complex level of the knowledge
types, declarative factual knowledge encompasses the basic elements and definitions related to a
topic, in this case we look at internationalization of faculty. Factual knowledge respond to
“what” questions related to basic facts, which in the context of this study include information and
terminology related to attracting, hiring and retaining international scholars. Some factual
knowledge influences identified in this domain include the definition of international faculty
(Mamiseishvili & Rosser, 2011), the understanding of competition and competitive
compensation (Altbach et al., 2012), and the concentration of academic talents in centers of
knowledge (Horta, 2009).
Declarative conceptual knowledge influences. In the next level of knowledge
complexity, being able to categorize, define principles, structures and theory, is defined as
declarative factual knowledge. This knowledge type also responds to “what” questions, which in
this study served to evaluate the influences of policies that impact the integration of international
faculty in the school life (Jepsen, 2014), the benefits of having international faculty on campus
(Jones, 2009), the importance of autonomy and academic freedom (Teichler, 2015), values
beyond compensation that influence international faculty decisions (Androushchak, 2012), the
role of international faculty in the process of internationalization (Helms et al., 2015), and
international faculty impact in reputation and rankings (Boekholt et al., 2001).
Procedural knowledge influences. The procedures involved with the task of attracting,
hiring and retaining international faculty were also assessed in this study to answer questions of
“how” administrators at HKUST have successfully implemented comprehensive
internationalization of faculty. Among the key influences assumed based on the available
literature, we explored how competitive benefits and compensation packages are structured
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58
(Altbach, 2012), how successful access to centers of knowledge are obtained (Altbach, 2007),
how policies of integration are developed and implemented (Teichler, 2015), and how to
leverage pull and push factors in attracting international faculty.
Metacognitive knowledge influences. At the highest level of knowledge complexity,
the ability that individuals have to reflect, monitor and adjust strategies towards achieving a goal,
is important to understand the thinking process underlying the strategies adopted. Self-awareness
and assessment of what works or does not work can lead to necessary adjustments that would
still make the established goal achievable. For this study, we are interested in assessing the
influences of how administrators strategize to formulate effective recruiting tools and how
market intelligence on competition is gathered and applied in the process of internationalizing
the faculty body (Cantwell, 2011).
Motivational Influences
Motivation issues are more complex and in large part a main cause of performance gaps
(Clark & Estes, 2008). Motivation is also important because it is directly related to learning and
knowledge acquisition (Rueda, 2011). Motivation is influenced by a series of environmental and
psychological factors, including interest, self-efficacy, attributions and goals (Mayer,
2008). Although most of these factors involve intangible mental processes, they manifest in
observable motivational behaviors such as the decision to pursue a goal, persistence on achieving
the goal, and the mental effort put into finishing the task and achieving performance goals
(Pintrich, 2002). In order to analyze the motivational influences in this study, we looked at two
of the many motivation theories, expectancy-value and self-efficacy.
Expectancy-value theory. Two underlying questions are at the core of this theory; the
first one is related to expectancy, and it can be formulated as ‘Can I do the task?’, which
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59
indicates an expectation for success. The second question is value related, such as ‘Do I want to
do the task’, indicating how important the task is considered by the individual. This theory is
also correlated with the three indicators of motivation and is a strong tool to predict performance
(Eccles, Wigfield, & Schifele, 1998). While expectancy can predict persistence and mental
effort, value predicts the active choice to engage in a task. The value component of the theory
can be subdivided in the following components: attainment value, intrinsic value, utility value
and cost belief. In this theory, the best performance, or desired change in behavior, is obtained
when a combination of high expectancy and high value is attributed to the task.
Administrators’ expectancy-value. Features of high expectancy of success and value
attributed to attracting, hiring and retaining international faculty were expected to be confirmed
among high and mid-level administrators at HKUST. Based on the available literature, some of
the assumed motivation causes included building relationships with centers of knowledge
(Altbach, 2007; Altbach et al., 2009), creating compensation and benefits packages (Altbach et
al., 2012), developing and implementing policies for the integration of international faculty
(Teichler, 2015), recognizing the contribution of international faculty to boost research (Horta,
2009; Mamiseishvili & Rosser, 2011), evaluating the impact in reputation and rankings (Arnold,
Kuusisto, Lankhuizen, McKibbin, & Rammer, 2001), fomenting academic freedom and
independence (Teichler, 2015) and benefiting from a multicultural working environment (Jones,
2009).
Self-efficacy theory. Emerging from Bandura’s (1997) Social Cognitive Theory, self-
efficacy has become an important concept to explain motivation, it has to do with the beliefs that
individuals have regarding their capacity to perform well on a specific task. Self-efficacy is also
related to agency, an individual capacity to influence the environment once he or she understands
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60
the influences of the environment. Self-efficacy is best understood as the result of prior
knowledge, experience and performance; observation of others performing a task; verbal
persuasion and feedback; personal physiological state; and the context. The basic principle of
the theory is that high self-efficacy indicates a stronger belief in one’s capability to do a task and
tends to lead to better performance, while the opposite, low self-efficacy, will have the contrary
effect. However, it is important to consider the concept of adaptive beliefs to calibrate extremes
of overestimated and underestimated confidence (Bandura, 1997; Pintrich, 2002). Self-efficacy
is related to all three behavioral indicators of motivation, and plays a big role when individuals
are faced with challenges towards the completion of a task or achieving a goal (Rueda, 2011).
Administrators’ self-efficacy. Several assumed motivational causes related to high self-
efficacy of the stakeholder of focus for the study were expected to be confirmed through
assessment. Reaching a high level of faculty internationalization is a complex and challenging
goal that administrators at HKUST have achieved. This study sought to understand the traits of
self-efficacy and confidence related to the implementation of international faculty integration
(Teichler, 2015), capacity to access centers of knowledge (Altbach, 2007; Altbach, Reisberg &
Rumbley, 2009), being able to structure competitive compensation packages (Altbach et al.,
2012) and leveraging an internationalized body of faculty to achieve the institutional mission (de
Wit, Hunter, Howard & Egron-Polak, 2015; Helms, Rumbley, Brajkovic, & Mihut 2015).
Organizational Influences
Organizational assets, processes, equipment, policies and culture closes the Clark and
Estes (2008) KMO framework. People in organizations have to be motivated and have the
necessary knowledge to perform well and achieve individual and team goals; however, if the
necessary physical infrastructure and processes are not in place, it is difficult to perform well on
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61
tasks, even for the most knowledgeable and motivated individuals. Most roots of organizational
performance gaps reside in culture, structure, policies and practices (Rueda, 2011). Consistency
in processes, policies and working conditions are also related to knowledge in the sense that
processes of organizational change require new knowledge to efficiently operate updated
technology or new approaches to problems. Likewise, motivation can be affected when there are
conflicting messages from the leadership and the goals and incentives established. Motivation is
also affected when policies are conflicting or prevent someone from getting the job done. The
intricacies of the organizational environment is permeated by the culture of individuals, groups
and subgroups formed within an institution. Analysis of performance gaps are incomplete if
cultural context is not taken into account. Next, we briefly discuss the concepts of cultural
models and settings to further understand these influences in organizational performance
(Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001).
Cultural models and setting. One complicating factor with culture in general, and
certainly with organizational culture, is that it is typically invisible. It is particularly hard to be
perceived by the members of a certain group because over time, the shared cultural knowledge is
automated and people do not think about it (Rueda, 2011). It is important to distinguish culture
in the context of this study from the typical stereotypes associated with one’s nationality, food
and dressing traditions. Instead, Schein (2004) discusses traits of organizational culture as
present in the behaviors during interpersonal relations; norms of the group; shared values; rules
of the game; work environment climate; mental models; what can or cannot be said; shared
meanings; common language and terminologies; rituals and celebrations. These shared values,
behaviors and meanings are learned over time and solidified as groups successfully solve
problems that allow it to continue existing by adapting to the external world, thus validating the
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shared values and reinforcing the culture. Therefore, when new members join the group, they
tend to assimilate the same mental schema to address similar problems.
Although culture is a powerful and mostly invisible element influencing actions and
interactions within the organization, it is flexible and can be changed or molded by the daily
exchanges and negotiations among the participating individuals who bring in their own cultures
(Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003).
Further understanding of cultural influences can be obtained through Gallimore and
Goldenberg’s (2001) notions of cultural models and cultural settings. This approach helps
identify which cultural influences may be enabling or impeding the achievement of
organizational goals. In this approach, cultural setting is described as the visible part of the
culture, and expressed through structures, practices and policies. The cultural setting can be
understood as the actual spaces or social contexts where individuals gathered to perform a task
and can be observed through the who, what, when, where, why, and how they go about solving
problems or pursuing a goal. While settings can be visible, cultural models are best described as
the deeper, invisible part of culture, or what defines an individual or group shared view of how
the world is or should be. Cultural models are the natural environment in which members of a
group operate, therefore it goes unnoticed as the shared mental schemas and values are
automated. Understanding cultural models, as they manifest in a variety of cultural settings and
contexts, require careful analysis when trying to close organizational performance gaps.
Administrators’ cultural models and settings. In light of the literature of how
organizational influences can enable or be a barrier for performance, this study sought to
understand how resources were distributed to allow HKUST to gain and maintain access to
important centers of knowledge around the world (Altbach, 2007; Altbach et al., 2009), how
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financial provisions made it possible to provide competitive compensation and benefit packages
for international faculty (Altbach et al., 2012), and how investment decisions were made
regarding the development and maintenance of high-end research facilities and laboratories
(Cantwell & Taylor, 2013). Issues of cultural settings and models included verifying the
alignment of policies and goals to attract and retain international faculty (Teichler, 2015);
leadership role models in the pursuit of global connections and internationalization through
faculty (Altbach, 2007; Altbach et al., 2009), and systems of norms, opportunities and incentives
for career development of local versus international faculty (Helms, 2015).

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this project was to study HKUST’s recognized performance in faculty
internationalization. By taking a case study approach, this study intended to inform higher
education leaders about the importance and implications of faculty internationalization as a
strategy that complements more traditional approaches, such as study abroad, international
student recruitment, and curriculum internationalization. Using administrators as the stakeholder
of focus, the study looked at assets in the areas of knowledge and skill, motivation, and
organizational resources that support a high level of faculty internationalization.
As such, the questions that guided the promising practice study are the following:
1. What knowledge, motivation and organizational assets underpin HKUST
administrators’ efforts to recruit and retain a large percentage of international faculty?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and
administrators’ knowledge and motivation?
3. What recommendations in the areas of knowledge, motivation, and
organizational resources may be appropriate for solving the problem of faculty
internationalization at another organization?
Stakeholders of Focus
Administrators at HKUST were defined as the stakeholder of focus for this study after
considering two other groups, government and faculty. Although all of these groups play an
important role in HKUST’s success in attracting and retaining high quality international faculty,
administrators have a more direct role in the development and implementation of policies and
strategies pertaining to the process of attracting, hiring and retaining international faculty. More
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specifically, the focus was on senior and mid-level management responsible for implementing
and supporting the university’s goals to hire and keep high quality international faculty. Heads
of departments and chairs of hiring committees were the main group of focus. However, there is
a degree of complexity in studying this stakeholder group as roles and responsibilities may be
shared, complemented, and even overlapped at different levels and departments. While HR
operationally puts together compensation packages, announces positions and collects
applications, heads of departments, deans, as well as the office of the provost and the president,
may also be involved with critical parts of the process, including interviewing and making final
hiring decisions. Targeting an internal stakeholder group with direct impact on the overall
university goal makes this promising practice study feasible. In addition to administrators,
faculty were interviewed to provide the study a more complete understanding of the economic,
noneconomic and academic push-pull factors that influences faculty decision to move to Hong
Kong and work for HKUST.
Methodological Framework
The methodology adopted for this study was Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis. This
inquiry framework was originally developed by the authors to identify gaps in organizational
performance from a knowledge, motivation and organization (KMO) perspective. While the
original work was designed for application in the corporate setting, a later translation of the
approach by Rueda (2011), inserted the terminology and references more familiar to the
education environment and professionals. However, since both Clark and Estes (2008) and
Rueda (2011) focused on identifying and fixing performance gaps, an adjustment of the
framework was necessary to study the success obtained by HKUST in matters related to faculty
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internationalization. In this adaptation of the methodology, we look at KMO assets, instead of
gaps, therefore allowing to explore and learn from excellence in performance.
The methodology also incorporated a careful analysis of the knowledge assets
administrators demonstrate to successfully attract, hire and retain international faculty based on
Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom & Krathwohl, 1956).
This taxonomy defines the types of knowledge in order of complexity: factual, conceptual,
procedural, and metacognitive. As the foundation for the motivational component of the of the
methodology, Eccles and Wigfield (2002) expectancy value theory and Bandura’s (1997) and
Pintrich’s, (2002) self-efficacy theory were applied to assess administrators’ decision to pursue
faculty internationalization, persist on it, and put mental effort into it. Finally, this study looked
at the HKUST organizational assets, which include tangible infrastructure, policies, human
capital, as well as the organizational culture. Culture was analyzed from the perspective of the
formal communicated culture, known as cultural settings, and less obvious shared values and
beliefs that compose the invisible part of the organizational culture, known as cultural models
(Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001; Schein, 2004).
Assumed Influences
As a promising practice, this study assumed that administrators at HKUST possessed
comprehensive knowledge, motivation and organizational assets that established the institution
as a leader in attracting, hiring and retaining international faculty. However, to avoid the risk of
uninformed conclusions about these assumed assets (Rueda, 2011), a complete investigation of
the causes for success was conducted. These were the three components of the validation
process: (a) scanning (informal) interviews with stakeholders; (b) learning, motivation, and
organization/culture theory; and (c) a review of related literature on higher education
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internationalization and faculty internationalization. Assets were also informed by the available
literature as discussed in Chapter Two, and included in table format as an Appendix in this
chapter. Appendices D, E and F have the knowledge, motivation, and organization respective
tables of assumed influences. Next, a discussion of the KMO assumed assets that make HKUST
a leader in internationalization of faculty is presented.
Preliminary Scanning Data and Critical Observations
Knowledge and Skills. At HKUST, administrators showed awareness of the role and
importance of international faculty and what it takes to attract, hire and retain them. Postiglione
(2011) stated that HKUST’s most important success factor was the capacity to recruit over 50
percent of its faculty from abroad, and around 80 percent of the entire faculty body with terminal
degrees granted by the top 24 universities in the world. He also describes how HKUST’s first
president, Woo Chia-wei, not only personified the Chinese scientific diaspora, but also played a
direct role in recruiting the best and brightest. President Woo also set the standard for his
successors to inspire generations of similar scholars to leave stable positions in the United States,
Canada and Europe to come and work at HKUST. Furthermore, knowledge pertaining to the
competitive global landscape and what constitute competitive compensation and benefit
packages were also cultivated. Salaries, for example, had been much lower in Asia, but were
increased to levels similar to those in top Western universities (Postiglione, 2013). Also,
awareness of policies that foster the integration of international faculty, academic freedom, and
incentives for career advancement, indicate a broader understanding of what attracts talented
academic professionals.
In 2009, the third resident of HKUST, Tony Chan, took office. One of the highlights of
his administration was the establishment of the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), modeled after
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a similar one at Princeton University. At one point, the IAS advisory board was composed of 12
Nobel laureates, and hired ten permanent high-profile faculty and offered 60 positions for high-
potential young faculty in postdoctoral fellowships (Postiglione, 2011). Finally, well thought
strategies to access pools of talented faculty at key centers of knowledge in Europe and the
United States have been consistently executed.
HKUST’s global engagement and outreach is documented in two of the six key areas of
the university Strategic Plan (HKUST, 2017). With over 250 exchange and international
cooperation partnerships, HKUST has carefully chosen strategic partners with which innovative
programs such as a triple-degree for business undergraduate students, tripartite academic
exchange and research collaboration, and international internships, are among some of the
successful initiatives. Access to centers of knowledge also happen naturally, given the ties and
relationships of a diverse body of faculty with their universities of origin or places where they
worked previously, such individuals act as “network agents” (Postiglione, 2013).
Motivation. From a motivation standpoint, administrators showed high levels of
expectancy-value and self-efficacy supporting the decision to engage in faculty
internationalization, to persist on it, and dedicate mental effort to this challenging task.
Postiglione (2011) quoted HKUST’s first president, as saying “You have to start from the top,
because only first-class people can attract other first-class people. In fast moving fields like
science, engineering, and management, you are either first class or without class.” Other
examples of the motivation and self-efficacy can be observed in how dedicated the leadership is
to cultivating relationships with top universities in different parts of the world and strategic
partnerships; the adherence to policies that favors the integration of international faculty with the
university community; the recognition that international faculty have an impact in the
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institutional reputation and research output and outcomes; and the promotion of a cultural
diverse work environment. In 2016, HKUST president, Tony Chan, in a presentation at the
Asian Universities Summit, highlighted the power of ecosystems such as Silicon Valley, Silicon
Wadi, and Hong Kong to attract talents and foster economic development. In his list of critical
success factors for higher education to drive innovation and technology, talent was at the top,
with emphasis on how universities need to nurture talent to generate innovative ideas and build
an international environment to draw global talents and families (Chan, 2016).
Organization. Hong Kong’s publicly-funded universities need to be understood as part
of a higher education system composed of eight research universities that serve a national
development purpose (Salmi, 2009) and a governmental structure that sets broad directives and
allocates funding. Although universities operate with very high levels of independence and
autonomy, organizations such as the University Grants Committee (UGC) and the Research
Grants Council (RGC), act as buffers between the government and universities (UGC, 2017). In
its advisory capacity, UGC steers higher education by setting performance guidelines, allocating
funds in a manner that requires universities to compete but also cooperate, and providing
accountability to the general public on how tax revenues are spent (Postiglione, 2011;
Postiglione, 2013). Observable examples of the relevance of UGC in the development of
universities in Hong Kong, and specifically for HKUST, was an unsuccessful attempt to merge
HKUST and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002. Similarly, UGC’s directive for
internationalization and engagement with Mainland China, although implemented at the
discretion of each institution, is an overarching goal for the entire higher education system.
Specifically related to HKUST, all the information collected through academic articles,
online content published on HKUST’s web site and by other sources, indicated a sound
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organizational infrastructure and resources provided by the government and private sector
donors. Appropriate allocations seemed to be made to support administrators in the pursuit to
foster international relationships in a variety of formats. These resources also allow for the
creation of competitive compensation and benefit packages that are enticing to international
faculty. In addition, excellent laboratory and research infrastructure were in place, which is
reflected in the increasing number of papers published and citations. From a culture standpoint,
HKUST cultivates a truly international workplace; diversity of nationality and/or origin of final
degree is observed not only among faculty but also students and staff. Another significant
organizational asset and facilitator was the fact that English is HKUST’s official language of
instruction and business, which is aligned with the outside context of Hong Kong as a global
city. International faculty, as defined by HKUST, is reflected at the highest levels of leadership,
with all of its presidents being recruited from top universities and research centers in the United
States.
Participants
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has around 14,210 students in
undergraduate and graduate programs in the areas of science, technology, engineering,
management and business; approximately 660 faculty members; and approximately 2,800
administrative and support staff. The population for this study was administrators responsible
for defining goals, resources, and procedures involved with hiring and retention of international
faculty.
The sample was formed of senior and mid-level managers, members of the faculty, and
members of hiring committees responsible for implementing and supporting the university’s goal
to hire and keep high quality international faculty. Two specific subgroups in this population
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were administrators and faculty at different departments and schools. The population of the
study was composed of 11 participants, of which six were administrators, three faculty, and two
faculty that also performed administrative roles. Purposeful and snowball sampling were
adopted to explore and understand KMO assets that make HKUST a promising practice in hiring
and retaining international scholars. All participants had at least five years at HKUST and were
direct or indirectly involved with structuring compensation packages, recruiting and retaining
faculty. Interviews with faculty provided insights from their prospective on how push-pull
factors influenced their decisions and also contributed to triangulating data and trustworthiness
of the study.
Data Collection Procedure
Once permission from the University of Southern California’s Institutional Review Board
(IRB) was obtained, and in order to validate the knowledge, motivation and organizational
(KMO) assumed assets of faculty internationalization at HKUST, a qualitative case study was
conducted. The data collection methods adopted included in-person, semi-structured, in-depth
interviews with mid and senior-level administrators, members of hiring committees from
different schools, international faculty, and document analysis.
A list of eight to ten open-ended questions and interview protocol were specifically
designed to assess the KMO assumed assets and to address the inquiry questions proposed for
this study. A separate interview protocol was designed to assess hiring, retention, economic,
non-economic, and academic push-pull factors from a faculty point of view. For the document
analysis, HR policy documents, open faculty positions, strategic plans, key administrators’ bios,
and other appropriate online and off-line publications were scrutinized with the objective of
mining and cataloging evidence of knowledge assets that guided plans and decisions towards
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faculty internationalization; motivational indicators of decision to pursue and persist in achieving
faculty internationalization goals; and organizational assets, such as policies, human capital,
infrastructure, and support systems that reflected exemplary practices and made HKUST a
leader in the area of faculty internationalization. The in-person interviews and document review
conducted are discussed next.
Interviews
Six mid and senior-level administrators, three international members of the faculty, and
two faculty with accumulated administrative roles were purposefully sampled for in-person
interviews of about one hour. Upon receiving consent from interviewees, interviews were audio-
recorded for later verbatim transcription and analysis. Minimum notetaking took place during
interviews, except in one case where three administrator were interviewed together and requested
not to be recorded. Interviews were semi-structured and conversational, participants were able to
speak freely about their experiences, knowledge, beliefs and points of view. While the topics
posed for the interview were aligned with the literature reviewed and aimed at addressing the
KMO and push-pull inquiry questions, the order in which they were presented was flexible and
adapted from the first interview to the subsequent ones to include relevant emerging themes
further explored, including probing questions. After reviewing transcripts and notes, unclear
topics were clarified via follow up e-mails with participants. The interview protocols are
included in Appendices A and B.
Document Analysis
Multiple documents containing historical information, decisions, and plans made during
critical years since the foundation of HKUST were analyzed to identify KMO assets for
comparison with information collected through interviews. There were all institutional
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documents that were of public domain, such as multi-year strategic plans, currently open
positions, profile of faculty and leadership, and HR policies were the main source of document
analysis information. Document analysis protocol can be found in Appendix C.
Validation of Influences
To prevent uninformed conclusions about observed and literature informed assets
(Rueda, 2011), each of the assumed assets and influences, whether knowledge, motivation, or
organizational related, were put through a validation process as a result of the data collected
through in-person interviews and document analysis, according to the summary validation table
below.
Table 4
Summary Validation Table
Assumed Assets Interviews Document Review
Knowledge assets
Administrators know what are centers of
knowledge and how to access them
X X

Administrators know what are competitive
compensation and benefits packages and how to
structure them
X X

Administrators know how to compete for and hire
international faculty
X X

Administrators understand the importance and
benefits of having international faculty
X X

Administrators know the policies that better foster
an environment of academic freedom
X X

Administrators know how to develop and
implement strategies to recruit international
faculty
X X

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Table 4, continued
Assumed Assets Interviews Document Review
Motivation assets
Administrators value relationships that grant
access to centers of knowledge
X X

Administrators expect that attractive
compensation and benefits packages work
X X

Administrators value adopting policies to
integrate international faculty in school life and
the larger society
X X

Administrators value the contributions
international faculty can make to boosting
research
X X

Administrators value the impact international
faculty have in reputation and rankings
X X

Administrators value academic freedom and
independence as important conditions to attract
international faculty
X X

Administrators believe that faculty
internationalization is strategic for the university
to meet its mission goals
X X

Administrators are able to adopt policies to
integrate international faculty in school life and
the larger society
X X

Administrators are able to structure attractive
compensation and benefit packages
X X
Organizational assets
Administrators have access to resources that
allow them to foster relationships with key centers
of knowledge
X X

Administrators have financial resources allocated
to create attractive compensation and benefit
packages
X X

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Table 4, continued
Assumed Assets Interviews Document Review
Organizational assets

Administrators have academic and administrative
autonomy to make decisions
X X

Administrators support investments in laboratory
and research infrastructure
X X

Administrators support policies that are aligned
with the goal of integrating international faculty
in school life and the larger society
X X

Administrators have leadership role models of
actively pursuing connections with key centers of
knowledge
X X

Administrators provide both local and
international faculty equal opportunity for career
advancement and tenure
X X

Trustworthiness of Data
Three-part triangulation was adopted to ensure validity, reliability and credibility of
analysis and findings (Merriam, 2009). Administrators’ interview responses were compared to
findings from faculty interviews, and document review for consistency. Carefully crafted open-
ended questions were intended to permit administrators to speak freely, thus allowing for
relevant KMO assets and views not yet anticipated to emerge. This constructivist flexibility in
data collection through interviews was expected to generate findings that were closer to reality
(Merriam, 2009). Faculty interview were slightly more structured and included a list of
economic, noneconomic and academic push-pull factors. In person interviews were recorded
upon permission of interviewee and complete anonymity secured. In addition to data collection
triangulation, statements of conclusions obtained from analysis of interview transcripts and
member checking to avoid misinterpretations of meaning were adopted (Maxwell, 2012).
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Role of Investigator
I did not have any relationship with HKUST; my only exposure to the organization had
been a one-week visit in October 2016 as part of the requirement for my Global EdD program.
After learning about how this research university was able to achieve high levels of excellence
and boost global reputation in a relatively short period of time, I became more interested in
understanding the key factors contributing to HKUST’s success. Also, I was interested in
investigating an organization in a cultural context different than the ones I had been mostly
exposed to. I was born and raised in South America, Brazil, and through professional
experiences, heritage, and travels, had gained significant exposure to American and European
cultures, but had had almost no contact with Asian cultures and working environments. Through
this study, I developed a deeper understanding of the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
assets that make HKUST a promising practice in the area of faculty internationalization, and
obtained a better understanding of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia’s academic environment.
With regard to biases, it is important to note my generally favorable and positive world
view on issues related to globalization, internationalization, intercultural exchanges,
multilingualism, and free movement of people across borders, which in essence, was the reason
for choosing an organization with high levels of internationalization as a benchmark to study.
Data Analysis
The data analysis process adopted for this study sought to follow Merriam’s (2009)
suggestion for simultaneous collection and analysis. In order to capture the essence of the raw
data collected, especially through interviews, transcriptions of recordings were obtained right
after the initial interviews. Once transcribed, a meaning making processes followed seeking to
identify meaningful data units, recurring themes and categories that addressed the research
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questions and fit the KMO framework. Simultaneous collection and analysis also guided the
sequence of interviews and the types of questions asked so that all themes pertaining to KMO
assets were extensively and thoroughly addressed. Once meaningful units of data were
identified, they were clustered into KMO and emerging categories. The relevance of data units
were determined by frequency as well as the context in which they occurred.
Limitations and Delimitations
Some of the limitations of this study include the Clark & Estes (2008) KMO
methodology, which was the design prompted for all students in the USC Rossier School of
Education Global Executive EdD program. Since this framework was originally designed to
address performance gaps, it had to be adapted for application in a promising practice study.
Another contingency of the Global EdD program was that the study necessarily has to be
conducted within a certain time period to comply with specific class requirements for graduation,
so making it feasible implied the collection of manageable amounts of data and a very specific
stakeholder of focus. There was a limitation in choosing the sample, since I did not have direct
access to administrators at HKUST, one of my Global Ed.D. colleagues, who had previously
worked at HKUST, made introductions. Another limitation is the fact that this study only
included participants currently working for HKUST. Including individuals who previously
worked at the institution would have provided different views on critical issues, such as
academic freedom, career advancement and promotion, and overall retention. While the findings
of this study were expected to inform practices in the field of internationalization of higher
education, their generalization should also be identified as a limitation, since studying other
stakeholders and institutions was beyond the scope of this study. Furthermore, it is important to
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consider the larger geographical, governmental, and cultural-linguistic context in which this
particular university is inserted thus influencing its performance.
Several delimitations were purposefully established due to the time constraints and focus
required by the KMO gap analysis methodological framework. As a case study, this project was
bounded within the institutional limits of HKUST and more specifically administrators, the
stakeholder of focus chosen for the study. The other two stakeholders considered were
government agents, that influence overall policy of higher education in Hong Kong, and faculty
themselves; which for this study were treated as a secondary stakeholder. The first was avoided
due to assumed difficulties to access and collect data, and the second due to my interest in
understanding the phenomenon of faculty internationalization mainly from an administrator
standpoint, given my current position as an administrator at another university. Another
delimitation had to do with the focus of the research, which was limited to faculty
internationalization, understood as only one component of overall internationalization of higher
education. A more complete study would cover student internationalization, study abroad
programs, exchange programs and curriculum internationalization, however, as previously
mentioned, manageability of the study defined its delimitations. Finally, data triangulation used
three sources, semi-structured interviews with administrators, semi-structured interviews with
faculty, and document review. This decision was made considering the relatively small number
of sample for the study and the intention to reach a deep understanding of individual experiences
and points of view.

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CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS
This chapter presents the findings from this qualitative case study. The first section
provides an overview of contextual and emerging findings that were too broad to categorize
under Clark and Estes’ (2008) knowledge, motivation, and organizational (KMO)
methodological approach. Presenting these broad categories of findings early on also grounds
the discussion of findings related to assumed KMO assets. Next, findings for knowledge,
motivation, and organization assumed assets pertaining to attracting, hiring, and retaining
international faculty are presented. Finally, a summary of the main validated assets concludes
the chapter.
The findings demonstrate that 17 of the 22 assumed assets were validated, three were
partially validated, and two were not validated for this promising practice case study.
Discovered Contextual Findings
Institutional Maturity
The literature and references which inform the previous chapters reflect the successes
obtained by HKUST in its early years, which led to its reputation as a highly internationalized
university. At the center of the university’s stature is its success in attracting high quality
international faculty. Since the findings presented in this chapter pertain to current practices
related to attracting, hiring, and retaining international faculty, it is imperative to introduce a
timeline for the university’s internationalization process. Throughout this chapter, there are
references to how things used to be compared to how they are now. Therefore, this category of
institutional maturity provides insight into some of the challenges HKUST faces now that it is no
longer a start-up university and continues to pursue greatness.
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All participants displayed pride in being a part of HKUST and in what the institution has
achieved. All described being international as an essential differentiating attribute of the campus
and a natural characteristic of its design. All were clear that individual professional quality
guides hiring. The fact that the university does not publish goals or target percentages related to
the hiring of international faculty is explained by both the quality orientation and the fact that
participants see no need for setting them. While some control and tracking of different aspects
of diversity exists at the provost level, they are not publicly available. These are the words of an
administrator pertaining to international hiring strategy or hiring goals:
I don’t see that the university has an explicit internationalization strategy for faculty. To
a certain degree, we are doing well even without such a strategy. For example, we don’t
have a target number for the percentage of international faculty for the university.
Internationalization is always a key element for the university, and it has become a DNA
of the organization. Right from the beginning, we are recruiting international so it
becomes a practice. Departments are so used to this, and, when they recruit, they will
look for this unintentionally.
In the early days, HKUST faced different challenges to fulfill its mission of becoming a
global, research, science and technology university. For one, there was little research done in
Hong Kong in the 1990s, and the more traditional universities served local needs, so there was
not a pool of academics from which to hire. Therefore, from its idealization to execution, leaders
knew there was no option but to hire internationally. At that time, hiring globally was a priority
and all resources were put in place to attract people who were international, entrepreneurial and
comfortable taking risks. Some may have come for the competitive salary and benefits. Others,
with ties to Hong Kong and the region, came for the opportunity to give back, but all came
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knowing this was an organization that had to be built, as it had no reputation and its facilities
were yet unfinished. An interview participant described recruiting challenges in the early years:
So, I think at that time the pitch was more about it is an exciting new place, we have the
vision to build a world-class university, come join us! So, I think in a way we attracted a
more diverse, adventurous, risk-taking profile, maybe... There were two types, one was
the adventurous young hot shot, “I have nothing to lose, it will be interesting to come to
this place and check it out.” And another group were people who connected somehow
with Hong Kong. Maybe they had moved to the U.S. for a long time for their higher
education, establish their careers, and they saw an opportunity perhaps to give back, to
build a good university in Hong Kong. So, I think in the early days we were very
aggressive in recruiting internationally, especially the North American market.
Some participants noted they had no legacy issues to deal with, and there was not an
organizational culture or bureaucracy that needed to be changed: it was a blank slate. After 28
years, some indicated that, recently, the institution became more conservative in its hiring by
attracting more people from the region. In part, this is due to the positive reputation it has
achieved, becoming a more viable place for young scholars from Asia. A part of the current
generation is described as more conservative, as they come for and enjoy the benefits of the
status quo and are less inclined to change or take risks. In a way, HKUST shows signs of
institutional aging, taking more conservative approaches to its management, decision making,
and hiring. The 5-year faculty recruitment plan references its current moment by adopting the
motto “Towards Our Next Miracle.” Also, this passage from the new staff orientation guide,
which is a welcome message by President Wei Shyy, speaks to the importance of keeping an
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innovative, entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit, the foundations of HKUST’s culture and
identity:
We inspire and motivate our employees to excel in everything they do and encourage
them to take more risks in the pursuit of innovation and growth. Our devotion to
excellence is what breeds the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of this University, and
forms the foundation of HKUST’s identity and standing.
With institutional maturity comes the challenge of defining the vision for what the
institution will be now that it achieved most of its early objectives to become a world-class
university. There are questions as to whether the university will continue to attract leadership
and faculty with the entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit of the early days or attract more people
based on the reputation it created for itself. A participant described the current moment:
So, then, who are we? Who are we really? Are we an Asian university? Are we an
international university? So, we want to be international, but we still want to be Asian
and so we have this existential crisis. And it makes sense. I’ve been here many years,
I’ve seen that pioneer spirit like, “we’re going to show them!” Now we’ve arrived so
where do we go next?
HKUST leaders acknowledged the challenges. The 2016–2020 strategic plan, extended
until 2022, provides many elements to help understand the priorities and roadmap for continued
growth. This document emphasizes capacity to continue to attract and retain diverse and high-
quality faculty from the global talent pool, as exemplified in this excerpt:
The recruitment, development, and support of Talent and the creation and application of
Knowledge form the Twin Pillars that support key actions to continue achieving the
University’s five strategic objectives at least until 2022.
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Western Orientation
Participants explained HKUST’s Western and American orientation as complementary of
its culture and the way in which business is conducted, especially in hiring and retaining
international faculty. None of the participants could assert whether this North American
orientation was by design or a consequence of finding the largest pool of available talent in the
United States. They all spoke about it as an important aspect of the university’s positioning, the
way it conducts business, and how it makes decisions. One faculty member stated,
Inspired in American universities such as Caltech and MIT, it was able to create a work
environment that is no stranger to the kinds of faculty it seeks to hire. The job titles are
the same as one would find at an American university and the community works very
similarly.
Participants alluded to the influence of the British higher education model on other top
universities in Hong Kong, such as the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of
Hong Kong. These were formed during the British colonial period with the initial purpose of
serving the local community by training professionals such as doctors and engineers. They
developed a strong research agenda much later. While the university’s organizational design,
structures, and terminology follow American standards, the other Hong Kong universities use
British terminology and organizational structures. For some participants, HKUST’s model and
work environment was perceived as more flexible and welcoming, providing more opportunities
for collaboration among faculty and academic units. This environment makes the transition for
most faculty easier, since the majority of them have either worked or obtained their Ph.D. at an
American university.
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HKUST hires faculty mostly from the United States, but also from Europe, Canada, and
Oceania. Those hired from the United States are not necessarily American, but they are
invariably holders of an American degree. The profile of all HKUST’s presidents also attests to
the strong U.S. model affiliation. These presidents, faculty, and top administrators have used
their personal connections and influence to hire the best they can, most often from the United
States, where they built successful careers and extensive networks. Another example of strong
affiliation with the United States is the creation of the HKUST Business School with UCLA
Anderson School of Business as the founding partner to assist with during the first 5 years.
Being an English-medium institution is also an important aspect of Western alignment.
Hiring from English-speaking countries makes sense, and integration of international faculty is
made easier. While English is the official language of the eight publicly funded universities in
Hong Kong, participants’ perception was that not all operate at the same level of proficiency.
Sometimes, the books, readings, and slides are in English, but the actual language of practice is
Cantonese. Having international faculty helps maintain the predominance of English, which
helps recruit more international faculty and students. With the growing proportion of local
teaching faculty, and the predominantly Hong Kong and Chinese student population, some
participants expressed concern with what they perceived as a decrease in the use of English.
The chart below shows where current leadership and faculty obtained their final degrees.
Leadership includes the president, deans, directors, and heads of departments, followed by full
professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and teaching faculty. North America
continues to be the main source of talent.
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Figure 1. Composition of faculty per origin of Ph.D.
Location
Seven participants partially attributed success in hiring international faculty to the
university’s location in Hong Kong. Some of the comments and observations prompted a more
detailed discussion of the importance of local context and how HKUST is positioned in it. For
participants, Hong Kong is part of the package, and is referred to as “Asia’s most vibrant city” in
HR documents reviewed for the study. One of the reasons university leaders fly in prospective
candidates is to introduce them to the campus and the city. External factors such as political
stability, freedom of speech, access to information, safety, and intellectual property protection
play a role in the institutional capacity to attract international candidates. The university location
and reputation are two of the main pull factors.
23
92
92
120
37
20
10
10
20
6
6
6
11
16
3
65
38
16
6
0
2
14
2
9
0
13
17
8
20
2
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
TEACHING
ASSISTANT
ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR
LEADERSHIP
FACULTY ORIGIN OF PH.D.
USA UK CANADA HONG KONG CHINA OTHERS
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Hong Kong is usually described as a Chinese city with Western style, the junction of East
and West, friendly towards foreigners, and where English is widely used, thus attracting many
international visitors. Similarly, HKUST is described as a “global Asian university.” This
strategic location creates advantages and disadvantages for hiring international faculty. It is
advantageous when hiring someone with a connection to the region, or from easily accessible
nearby countries like Korea and India. However, hiring senior faculty with family and school-
aged children is challenging due to the high cost of private education and limited capacity at
international schools.
HKUST is currently in a more competitive environment than it was in the early years, as
there is now competition in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, especially mainland China and
Singapore. In the 1990s, the university’s aggressive efforts to hire international faculty and
conduct research worked well, in part due to the lack of competition in that space. Currently, the
production of research by other top Hong Kong universities increased, and there is more
competition for human resources and funding. Despite local Hong Kong competition, being in
the city helps HKUST to compete with Asian universities that offer high salaries and benefits but
are not located within a city like Hong Kong. One participant described the research
environment in Hong Kong both in the past and now:
When I came here, the so called “research culture” in Hong Kong was very young. And
over the last two decades the number of people here who actually do research in an array
of different areas, not just in experimental biological science, but any social science
business or what have you, has grown steadily but the budget has not. So, it’s now much
more competitive, which is good, that’s good for Hong Kong as reputation to fund
competitive research, but it’s more challenging to get money now.
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All participants agreed that being in Hong Kong is particularly helpful when hiring
someone from the region, especially for those working towards, or who have already earned, a
Ph.D. at an American university. They understood the freedom as well as the political,
economic, and social stability of the city, and they appreciated an environment that resembles
that of their previous institutions. These are prospective faculty candidates whom participants
referred to as those “with a reason” to be in Hong Kong, as explained by one administrator:
Maybe the other way to put it is, when we lose a candidate, not very often we lose a
candidate to another university in Hong Kong. So, in a way we don’t have too much
trouble to say, like if someone is interested to come to Hong Kong, coming to HKUST is
not a difficult sell, and being international is actually part of the selling point.
The special status of Hong Kong in the context of China’s economic growth over the last
25 years also contributed to HKUST’s success by serving a large number of Chinese students
who find in the city and on campus conditions similar to those they would find at a university in
the West.
Diversity
While this study focused on the internationalization of faculty through hiring and
retention, participants consistently pointed out the larger discussion regarding diversity in terms
other than of nationality and ethnicity. For this reason, important considerations denote
HKUST’s engagement in addressing broader diversity issues, especially gender diversity.
Much of the discussion regarding diversity was spearheaded by the Women Faculty
Association (WFA), an all-female group of faculty members from all schools at HKUST which
received support from President Wei Shyy. Formalized in 2011, WFA’s initial motivation was
to address the issue of gender inequality that had gone unaddressed for 20 years, especially in the
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fields of science and engineering. At the time of this study, WFA’s efforts were focused on
diversity among faculty, students, and staff. The group advises leadership on policy and
practices impacting work, family, and recruitment initiatives.
One of the areas of influence of WFA is leading a task force on cultural, ethnic, and
gender imbalances. However, focus at the time of this study was the issue of gender, as some
departments do not have a single female tenure-track faculty member. The leadership had been
aware of these issues, but recent reports showing significant gender imbalances led to more
proactive actions to hire, promote, and retain female faculty.
Efforts to value and address diversity are reflected in a variety of documents analyzed for
this study. Almost every listing for an open position references the university’s commitment to
increasing the diversity of its faculty and a range of family-friendly policies. Also, the
university’s core values statement mentions,
Inclusiveness, Diversity, and Respect. The University values and respects the differences
of individuals, whether they are of different race, gender, cultural backgrounds, religion,
personal interests and in other dimensions, and strives to embrace these diverse forces to
foster an inclusive and caring environment. This will allow us to harness the richness of
ideas and perspectives for the benefit of the whole community.
The initiatives regarding diversity do not include goals or metrics for diversity. Instead,
university leaders use benchmarks from peer institutions as an indicator of what the university
should strive for. The work of the task force is mostly based on creating awareness and
educating heads of departments and faculty in general of the benefits, importance, and current
status of diversity at HKUST. Participants’ ultimate goal was to make diversity a factor people
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know about and naturally consider during the hiring process. One administrator explained the
approach:
The university does not have any policy or quantitative target of diversity to meet,
whether gender, nationality or other kinds. Our goal is to make it natural and then let
most of the faculty be aware of the importance of diversity because we cannot force them
to recruit more female faculty or recruit more people from overseas. We cannot do it this
way. We have to make those faculty aware of the importance of diversity in our decision
making in the university community.
A policy resulting from these efforts was a requirement for heads of departments to
provide a report on how many female candidates participated in the process. If none were hired,
they were to write an explanation as to why they were not shortlisted or invited for an interview.
Additionally, 3 years prior to this study, the university changed its tenure promotion rules to
allow female faculty to stop the count of minimum time for tenure application, of typically six
years, if they took maternity leave. This was intended to help female professors better balance
their career and family lives as well as serve as a benefit for hiring and retention. On a case-by-
case basis, two-body hire, in which the spouse of a female senior faculty member is offered
employment, is also a possibility, although not a policy. The challenge for the task force and
HKUST was to change culture and perception now that the university has an organizational
culture of its own. A participant described how hiring senior female faculty can be done,
addressing gender imbalances as a priority for the university:
Our former provost and now the president is very supportive of diversity. He has said
that, if we can hire a full professor that is senior grade female, if needed, it could be two-
bodied employment. So, that means the spouse will also be considered in that hiring.
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Knowledge Findings
The findings in this section are related to six knowledge-based assets identified in
Chapter Two and outlined in Table 5 below. All six assumed assets were validated.
Table 5
Validated Knowledge Assets
Assumed Knowledge Assets Validated Not Validated
Administrators know what are centers of
knowledge and how to access them
X
Administrators know what are competitive
compensation and benefits packages and how to
structure them
X
Administrators know how to compete for and hire
international faculty
X
Administrators understand the importance and
benefits of having international faculty
X
Administrators know the policies that better foster
an environment of academic freedom
X
Administrators know how to develop and
implement strategies to recruit international
faculty

X

Because some of the knowledge assets are similar, they were combined to provide a
concise and sequential presentation of findings supported by evidence from interviews and
document analysis.
Role and Importance of International Faculty
All participants displayed explicit knowledge and understanding that being a global
institution is at the core of HKUST’s mission and identity and that international faculty bring
different perspectives and provide students a truly international experience and worldview.
However, before further discussing participants’ perceptions of the importance of international
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faculty, it is important to note most of the participants in this study stated the guiding principle
for hiring is quality of individual professionals and not their nationality. Forming a highly
internationalized faculty body is a consequence of sourcing globally for quality. At the same
time, seven participants referenced that the university keeps track of nationalities and tries to
keep a certain balance. So, while nationality and ethnicity do not affect individual hiring, they
do influence the process.
With the “quality first” principle in mind, participants talked about the importance of
globally-minded individuals, which is a reference to faculty with an Asian background and a
global mindset and attitude. Most often, these individuals obtained a terminal degree or worked
internationally. The profile most frequently found at HKUST is of academics of Asian origin
who returned to the region after developing a career and reputation for themselves in the West.
Moreover, because HKUST attracts faculty of Chinese origin who studied internationally,
participants were concerned about cultural diversity. A participant described how the leadership
deals with diversity issues and how international faculty are viewed in that context:
It’s a priority. We have a new president, and he sees it even more important. Because,
over the years, as we’ve developed and grown, the attraction from the Asians has been
much higher, and so the ratios change slightly, and the new president sensed it. His effort
has been to diversify more. He even brought in a dean of students from the U.S. who
doesn’t speak Cantonese or Chinese. He’s dealing with all these local students who
much prefer Cantonese to speak. I guess what I’m saying is, even within the
administration they’re counting, how many international do we have, and what’s been the
trend, and let’s do something about it. So, there is some attention. Whether it defines the
hiring decision or not, I doubt, it influences it.
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In discussing the contributions of international faculty, participants most frequently
mentioned contributions to research, broader connections, diverse knowledge base, attraction of
international students, improvement of administrative practices, and overall contribution to
academic excellence and reputation. Like in most institutions, administrators at HKUST use
rankings selectively to highlight the ones showing better performance in certain areas. All
interview participants stated that, although rankings are important, hiring is not oriented by them.
Therefore, there is no intentional relationship between hiring international faculty and ranking
performance. Faculty have to be productive in publications and securing research funding
independent of nationality. Nine participants said rankings reflect what has been a priority from
the beginning. However, being highly international has helped HKUST differentiate from more
traditional universities in Hong Kong, and a diverse body of faculty does play a role.
While there was consensus in recognizing the importance and contributions of
international faculty, these contributions were discussed as a function of professional quality and
not a pre-determined goal to reach a certain mix or nationalities. Nevertheless, there were efforts
to keep a balance of ethnicity and nationality to maintain HKUST global identity.
Global Competition for International Faculty
All participants demonstrated understanding of the challenges of global competition to
hire and retain faculty. At HKUST, administrators use benchmark studies to stay informed of
what peer institutions are doing in Asia and globally. Nine participants said HKUST competes
on par with public universities in North America, Europe, and Oceania for talent, but it cannot
rival private research universities, especially in the United States. In Asia, the view is that
HKUST is still quite competitive, but some universities in China, Singapore, Korea, and even in
Hong Kong are increasingly aggressive in hiring international faculty.
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While administrators use the university’s well-established reputation to attract faculty,
they must contend with other schools in the region wanting to achieve similar stature.
Considering that it is relatively easier to move from Hong Kong to nearby places, regional
universities actively recruit faculty from HKUST, especially those on the tenure track. Some
participants viewed competition as an important indicator that the university hired good people,
they but may be paying below market and, therefore, need to adjust.
Another phenomenon in Hong Kong is that more traditional local prestigious universities
such as the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have recently
begun investing in internationalization and research. These universities are also engaged in
hiring high quality faculty from around the world, and, when a prospective candidate is looking
at Hong Kong as a place to go, they have several options. Nevertheless, when compared to peer
institutions in Hong Kong, participants preferred to discuss HKUST’s capacity to attract
international faculty in the academic fields in which it operates. Participants believed HKUST
still has the edge over its local competitors given its reputation. This passage from Strategic
Objective One of the Strategic Plan 2022, displays concern with increasing competition:
Undertake proactive faculty recruitment across all disciplines from around the world: to
maintain the vital input of high-caliber academics – the key pillar of our teaching and
research excellence – at a time of intensifying competition for top minds among local and
international institutions.
HKUST’s global orientation is to be a highly internationalized science and technology
research university. With that mandate, the university sources its faculty globally. One of the
strategies intended to make the university more agile was to make hiring decisions on a rolling
basis, meaning that a candidate who has been shortlisted and brought to campus for a 2-day visit,
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can be made an offer immediately, provided that the hiring committee is convinced that the
candidate is qualified. This is an attempt to secure a commitment from a candidate who will
likely receive various other offers from competing schools.
Participants also recognized personal factors and interests have to be aligned for a
successful hiring. For that reason, most talked about the complications of specifically
determining why a candidate selects another university in the region. One of the personal factors
influencing hiring at HKUST is a prospective candidate’s reason to be in Hong Kong and Asia,
whether personal or academic. On top of personal factors, interview participants also understood
the complexity of push factors in other countries, such as social and macroeconomic forces that
affect working conditions in the higher education sector and funding for research, thus prompting
academics to seek work where working conditions are better and funding is more available.
Competition at the local and global levels is a reality that affects recruiting and hiring
practices, and poses challenges to retaining faculty. Knowledge and understanding of personal
and contextual factors that influence decisions by prospective candidates are also essential.
Strategies to Recruit and Retain International Faculty
Participants talked about a hiring strategy that needs to be understood in two different
moments: the early days and currently. In the early days, there was a stronger emphasis on
hiring globally because there was not a deep enough pool of academic talent in Hong Kong. To
hire the best people, the founding leaders had to source globally.
Currently, strategies and means to recruit faculty vary depending on the level of hire.
The most standard process is to hire those fresh out of a Ph.D. program as assistant professors.
The search process is done globally through advertisement of the positions in overseas
magazines, journals, and websites. Hiring committees are formed at the department level. This
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model makes the process very specialized and targeted. Members of hiring committees also
attend international conferences in their field of specialty, invariably taking place in the United
States. These conferences function as job fairs for academics and an opportunity to pre-screen
candidates. Hiring for senior professors and heads of departments is more complex, and, in
addition to the regular global advertising, may involve contracting a search firm and activating
personal and professional networks.
Typically, the total hiring cycle lasts a year from position announcement to final
decision. Applications are evaluated as they come in, and strong candidates are interviewed
during conferences. Candidates who progress from the initial screening are brought to Hong
Kong for a 2-day visit which includes a seminar presentation, individual meetings with faculty,
meeting other international faculty and the dean, a visit to campus housing, and some
sightseeing.
Another strategy is the use of personal networks to identify candidates, obtain useful
information, and initiate conversations. This suits the typical senior faculty at HKUST, who
studied and worked in the West, so accessing their friends and former colleagues is convenient.
Personal networks serve to make referrals and facilitate introductions as well as to gain better
insight into candidates’ interests, current professional and personal status, and inclination
towards moving to a different university and country.
Key strategies adopted include conducting global search for every faculty position,
attending area-specific conferences, keeping the recruitment and hiring process under department
responsibility, and leveraging professional and personal networks to identify candidates.

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Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits
Knowledge of competitive compensation packages and benefits is central to executing a
successful global hiring strategy (Altbach et al., 2012). Participants showed understanding of
where the university stands in comparison to other Asian and Western universities, recognizing
some of its limitations as a publicly funded university. Consistently, participants indicated that,
in its early days, HKUST was more competitive in compensation and benefits than it is now. At
the founding of the university, compensation and benefits packages had to be highly competitive
and include generous expatriate benefits such as housing, private school education for
dependents, very liberal vacation time, a budget to travel back to the candidate’s country of
origin at least once a year, and a bonus of 25% at the completion of the contract. One of the
senior administrators described packages in the early days:
The package had to be something one could not refuse. The premise was to hire the best
possible quality faculty, so we had expat-like benefits that a typical American would live
comfortably. We offered housing, kids schooling, very generous vacation time, budget to
send you back to your country at least once a year, we paid for the airfare, and a
significant bonus if you stay the period of time you’re contracted for. You must have
competitive packages; very few people will take a hit on earnings. It has to be
advantageous. The rule of thumb is at least 15 percent higher.
Currently, compensation packages are not significantly different from averages practiced
by equally reputable and competitive universities in North America, Europe, or Oceania.
Participants stated that, because of HKUST’ reputation, candidates for faculty positions do
consider it as a more viable option work than they would have 15 years prior. One element of
compensation HKUST still offers a gratuity calculated over the total salaries received during a
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contract of typically 3 years that is paid as an incentive for contract fulfillment. Gratuity was
25% in the early days, and it is now 15%. Leadership’s commitment to staying compensation
package competitiveness was illustrated by the following excerpt from Strategic Objective One
of the Strategic Plan 2022:
Strengthen faculty remuneration package and support for their families: to complement
the University’s faculty hiring plan, retention capabilities, and add to competitiveness, the
remuneration package for new and existing faculty will be refined and strengthened, and
support for new faculty and their families enhanced.
Beyond compensation, according to participants, administrators integrate a series of
benefits as part of the package that helps them attract high-quality international faculty. Today,
HKUST relies heavily on its reputation of a highly internationalized institution with a
welcoming, collaborative, and supportive work environment. This reputation, associated with
the perception of relatively easier access to research funding and grants, lighter teaching loads,
and lab start-up funds, create conditions that are particularly enticing for junior faculty seeking to
set the foundations for their academic careers.
Participants mentioned that another differentiating benefit that administrators and heads
of departments leverage is the infrastructure at HKUST to support faculty, particularly those
from outside Hong Kong. A significant benefit is on-campus housing to which faculty have
access for 10% of salary. While access to housing is open to all tenure-track faculty, HKUST
uses a point system based on seniority and whether a new hire is moving from outside Hong
Kong that makes it easier for an international faculty member to get an apartment. One faculty
member described the on-campus housing benefit:
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This would be like if a university in Los Angeles could offer faculty apartments in
Malibu or something at 10% of their salary. I mean, you see the view and everything like
that. That is an attraction in terms of bringing people here.
Participants also know the importance of making prospects aware of non-monetary
benefits offered by the university or resulting from life in Hong Kong. Life on campus is
facilitated by various interest groups and activities that help integrate new faculty and family
members. Facilities such as a doctor’s office, dentist, nursery, grocery store, sports facilities and
other amenities are meant to make life easier and convenient. One indirect benefit frequently
discussed and listed on HR policies and orientation documents is the common practice of hiring
domestic workers in Hong Kong, and the apartments on campus are equipped with maid’s
quarters.
Participants also demonstrated explicit knowledge of the challenges in attracting faculty,
particularly for senior positions. Participants explained that, adding to long-standing challenges
hiring successful senior faculty out of their current positions, at that stage of their lives, it is
probable that they have a family, and such hiring becomes more complex and expensive. The
two main reasons reported for prospects to refuse job offers were availability of school for
children and accommodating spouses’ personal and professional interests. On the school issue,
although HKUST has a nursery and kindergarten on campus, participants talked extensively
about the scarcity of seats for students in Hong Kong international schools. Participants were
aware of this challenge and engage in different actions to alleviate the burden on faculty by
building relationships with schools and providing faculty with guidance and information on the
education system. Since this is a larger problem for Hong Kong in general, some of the
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participants indicated that this is something government officials have also been looking at. A
senior faculty member presented the challenge with schools in Hong Kong:
I think in terms of the challenges we face, I don’t think we’ve figured out how to address
how to find spaces in schools for elementary school age children because of the way
Hong Kong is structured. There’s a limited number of international schools. There’s
already a very large expatriate community that want to send their kids to those schools.
And they’re working for like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs who actually have lump
sums they just give to these schools to make sure that there are spaces for their
employees. Then, there are also wealthy local families that now increasingly send their
kids to the international schools. So, I think in terms of our recruitment, probably the
biggest challenge we have is when people, if they have essentially elementary or middle
school age children, making sure, getting slots for them. And I don’t think they do too
well on helping people with that.
The second challenge facing HKUST is accommodating spouses and addressing their
satisfaction with work and life in Hong Kong, especially if the spouse has no connections or a
reason to be in Hong Kong or Asia other than his/her partner’s work. HKUST does not have a
general policy on hiring spouses but consider it on a case by case basis.
A third challenge mentioned during interviews is the maximum retiring age, set at 65,
which makes it harder for the school to target more seasoned academics who would be inclined
to pursue a different professional experience at a later stage of their careers. It also poses
difficulties in retaining experienced faculty members currently working at HKUST. Like spouse
hiring, this is an issue that the leadership has dealt with on a case by case basis.
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Although important, compensation is no longer a focal point for HKUST to attract new
hires; instead, reputation and infrastructure to conduct research were the main differentials.
Housing on campus continues to be an important benefit given Hong Kong’s cost of living. Cost
and shortage of K-12 schooling for children of faculty posed a significant challenge to hiring
international faculty, especially for senior positions.
Connection and Access to Centers of Knowledge
Knowledge of the web of academic influence and access to the most developed nodes
referred to as centers of knowledge (Altbach, 2007; Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley, 2009) are
critical for conducting global searches for academic talent. Accessing centers of knowledge,
particularly the U.S. market, has been at the center of HKUST recruiting strategy. All
administrators and senior faculty interviewed were familiar with centers of knowledge and
displayed the capacity to access them for a variety of purposes. They referred to connections,
relationships and previous work experiences in the West.
In explaining how the university has been successful in attracting global talent,
participants most frequently referred to HKUST’s first President, Dr. Woo Chia-wei, as a model
of someone with academic roots in a major center of knowledge, such as the United States, and
how he used his connections to hire many of the first senior employees. Such a tactic has proven
successful, especially among the deep pool of academics with ties to Hong Kong, China, and
Asia, as they are more prone to return to the region. Personal networks and relationship are
leveraged to collect information of potential target candidates at the individual level, especially
for senior position hiring. Through such relationships, members of hiring committees gain
insight into people experiencing situations that may make them more inclined to move.
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Another way in which participants reported regularly accessing centers of knowledge is
by attending conferences in their fields of study. These conferences are central to recruiting
recent doctoral graduates into assistant professor positions. Many interviews take place during
conferences and serve to pre-screen and shortlist candidates. Access also happens in the form of
advertisement of open positions in major research journals and other vehicles with global
coverage and readership in North America, Europe, and Oceania. A senior faculty member
described the process:
The standard thing is to advertise in the major, mainly North American, professional
journals. And then all the mailing lists. And then typically, if it’s more well defined, say
for junior faculty search, we’ll, I think because we now have networks that are broad
enough, we start writing to people and ask if they have students or know anyone.
Fostering an Environment of Academic Freedom
None of the participants expressed issues or concerns with threats to academic freedom.
Hong Kong offers a climate of political and economic stability, freedom of speech, access to
information, safety, and intellectual property protection that plays an essential role in the
institutional capacity to attract international faculty.
The fact that HKUST is predominantly a science and technology school, and most of its
research does not touch on sensitive political or social issues, contributes to making it less
susceptible to facing issues of academic freedom. Concerns with the Chinese government ‘s
growing influence, including potential limitations to academic freedom and civil liberties may
affect faculty members’ decisions to accept a job offer. One misconception people can have is
whether they are required to conduct research in predetermined areas of interest or focus only in
the region. Applicants with a regional connection better understand the unique position of Hong
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Kong as an Asian city with many elements of Western lifestyle, and choose the city and HKUST
for its high level of freedom. This can be particularly appealing to Mainland returnees, who find
in Hong Kong the optimal option for their reinsertion in the region. This is how one participant
discussed the issue of academic freedom:
We haven't had, in this university, not that I've seen, a lot of problems or issues of
academic freedom. We hear of issues at other Hong Kong universities that have big
social sciences and journalism programs. So, whenever you have these kinds of schools
there can be challenges; we don't, our social sciences and humanities is not that big.
We're mostly scientists and business people. There’s less agitation or controversy due to
the kind of research that comes out of HKUST. I don’t get the sense that there’s any
pressure at all on academic freedom. But it is a big thing, and people will think about it, I
mean, I have a colleague whose family didn't want come because they were worried
about freedom.
HKUST’s commitment to academic freedom is displayed in this excerpt from the
Universities Core Values document:
Excellence, Integrity, and Academic Freedom. The University is committed to be a
leader in academic world through excellence in teaching, research and people, while
placing utmost value in the freedom to conduct academic activities, subject to the highest
standards of academic integrity and honesty.
The findings of this study does differ from the growing sentiment that Hong Kong is
changing under the growing influence and control by Mainland China. While the “one country
two systems” model has provided Hong Kong universities with the necessary conditions to
continue to thrive, a part of the population, mostly the younger generation of students, is
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concerned with the future of Hong Kong’s autonomy and quasi-democratic guarantees, which
also raises questions about academic freedom (Lee, 2014; Postiglione & Ailei, 2016). Popular
acts of civil disobedience, such as the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the Fishball Revolution
in 2016, are indicators of tension between the desire for independence and the role of the ruling
Chinese government (Huang, 2017; Ortmann, 2015).
Motivation Findings
The findings presented in this section are related to the nine motivation assets assumed in
Chapter Two and summarized in Table 6. Five assets were validated, two were partially
validated, and two were not validated.
Table 6
Validated Motivation Assets
Assumed Motivation Assets Validated Not Validated
Administrators value relationships that grant
access to centers of knowledge
X
Administrators expect that attractive
compensation and benefits packages work
X
Administrators value adopting policies to
integrate international faculty in school life and
the larger society.

X
Administrators value the contributions
international faculty can make to boosting
research.
X
Administrators value the impact international
faculty have in reputation and rankings
X
Administrators value academic freedom and
independence as important conditions to attract
international faculty

X
Administrators believe that faculty
internationalization is strategic for the university
to meet its mission goals
X
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Table 6, continued
Assumed Motivation Assets Validated Not Validated
Administrators are able to adopt policies to
integrate international faculty in school life and
the larger society
X (Partially)
Administrators are able to structure attractive
compensation and benefit packages
X (Partially)

Because some of the motivation assets are very similar, they were combined to provide a
more concise and sequential presentation of findings supported by evidence from interviews and
document analysis.
Value of the Role and Importance of International Faculty
Participants demonstrated high levels of motivation to engage, persist and succeed in
attracting international faculty but appeared to be less confident in retaining these professionals.
They displayed a clear belief that international faculty make essential contributions to diversity,
research, teaching, administrative practices, innovation, and reputation of the university. As
previously mentioned, participants insisted that hiring practices are not guided by nationality of
prospects but by their professional quality. Along these same lines, most participants preferred
to discuss faculty internationalization through the lenses of diversity, demonstrating that their
focus is broader than just nationality to include, among other aspects, gender diversity. A senior
faculty member explained the prioritization of quality:
Here it’s really about quality, and I think, if you want to maintain quality, you just have
to go all over the world. So, to some extent, there’s a conscious effort. There’s
obviously a conscious effort to increase diversity at the senior ranks, which is now
focused on gender.
Administrators and faculty interviewed spoke about how a diverse and internationalized
body of faculty is the essence of HKUST’s identity, and as such, their engagement in these
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practices is a normal part of their daily jobs. They also appeared to believe this is what provides
the institution a unique position and differentiation in the region and as a global player.
Frequently, participants referred to the mission to be a global university and to the role
international faculty play by bringing different perspectives and providing students with a truly
global experience and world view. These faculty members attract international students and
influence administrative practices by interacting with administrators or by occupying
administrative positions. Most participants agreed that international faculty help maintain the
university’s reputation and differentiation in Hong Kong and Asia.
In terms of research productivity, publications, and citations, participants also showed
confidence in attracting candidates of the best quality possible to be as productive as they can be,
independent of nationality. Nevertheless, most recognized that international faculty bring
broader connections, relationships, and a diverse knowledge base, which contributes to academic
excellence.
Participants displayed no inclination to orient hiring according to what it does to the
university performance on rankings or reputation. Like the quality orientation factor presented
above, performance in ranks is treated as an important source of information and comparison, but
mostly a reflection of priorities that happen to coincide with parameters valued by rankings. At
the same time, participants were confident that the university’s reputation as an internationalized
and supportive workplace results mainly from the diversity of nationalities.
Value of Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits
While most participants were convinced of the importance of prioritizing the hiring of
international faculty and showed confidence in HKUST’s overall capacity to attract these
professionals, there is less confidence in institutional capacity to compete on compensation. All
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106
participants recognized the compensation and benefits packages offered in HKUST’s early days
were more competitive. At the same time, they all appeared to believe that the university’s
reputation and the working environment it offers compensate for the loss of competitiveness on
compensation. Participants realize they operate under conditions and context more competitive
than the early days of the university. In terms of benefits such as housing, health insurance,
annual leave, lighter teaching load, research support, end of contract bonus, and on-campus
amenities, participants still use them as differentiation points. A senior faculty explained
competition as follows:
We really face global competition with the other top schools, including Asian and U.S.
schools, Singaporean as well as other Hong Kong Schools. So, yes, we are facing
competition. We have limitation and constraints for being a public funded university.
Our main income source is from the government. I know that departments are trying to
create a good research and work environment for our faculty, in particular for rookies.
When they come they’re looking for whether they could continue to develop in their key
research areas. Departments are trying to create a decent package. Maybe not as
competitive as a lot of top U.S. school, but we want to attract them to come because of
the research environment.
Participants’ confidence in their capacity to structure and offer competitive packages is
limited by the fact that HKUST is a publicly funded university. The level of position needing to
be filled dictates engagement behaviors. Hiring for entry-level assistant professors can be a
standardized process in term of compensation and benefits while hiring a full senior professor
can be more customized, depending on the candidate and priority of the university. Participants
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showed confidence in obtaining support from the provost to structure more competitive packages
to attract senior female faculty, currently an area of priority for the university.
Overall, even though the mandate to hire the best quality possible is still imperative, the
reality is that the university is not attracting the very best. Participants do want to hire the best
but understand they cannot compete with top institutions on all fronts. An administrator
described the niche of hiring where HKUST is more successful:
So, definitely we’re getting a high caliber of people at the junior level. But we’re not
competing with Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, and Princeton. People are still sending their
absolute best students to places like that. But we’re getting very solid people one tier
down.
Value of Relationships and Access to Centers of Knowledge
Among all participants, accessing and transiting the main global centers of knowledge is
highly valued and cultivated. Participants believe in the importance of these relationships, and
they regularly access their counterparts for a variety of reasons, including to obtain information,
referrals, and introductions to prospective recruits. In large, participants and faculty maintain
many connections in the West, especially with academics in the United States, where the
majority of senior professors, deans, and other leaders at HKUST are from or where they
obtained their PhDs.
In addition to formal institutional connection and informal personal relationships,
participants value accessing centers of knowledge through major conferences in their field of
study as a way to expand relationships and recruit faculty. They also showed consistent efforts
and resources towards advertising positions in scientific journals and other academic
publications with circulation and readership in the West.
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Value of Academic Freedom
Participants showed appreciation and value for academic freedom. They stated that
unrestricted access to information and freedom of expression of all sorts constitute an essential
factor in attracting international faculty. This confidence appears to derive from HKUST’s
declared commitment to academic freedom, the fact that it is a science and technology institution
and therefore less prone to engaging in research topics of social and political sensitiveness, and
Hong Kong’s political stability as an autonomous and special administrative region. However,
as previously stated, the state of academic freedom discussed by participants in this study may
not be a reflection of sentiments in Hong Kong in general, or that of other higher educational
institutions in the region.
Value of Policies and Practices to Integrate International Faculty
Participants value and engage in developing, improving and implementing policies to
integrate international faculty and their families into the university community and more broadly
in Hong Kong. Participants stated their belief in all faculty receiving equal treatment and access
to career opportunities and advancement as a critical element of integration. However, some
showed less confidence in the effectiveness of such policies and practices for integration beyond
a somewhat superficial working level. Despite efforts and existing policies, when people get
together voluntarily or to socialize, groups of affinity by language are formed, such as Chinese,
Cantonese, and English. This is not an issue particular to HKUST or an apparent failure in
pursuing integration but, rather, a fact that participants recognize needs to be dealt with. A
senior administrator stated,
They’re all English fluent, but they’re bonding. Look, I don’t do this, but let’s say
you’re, the trust factor, and you’ve got some things to share, and since you’re in your
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own native tongue, that’s just human nature. Do I wish that people ignored those
tendencies? Yeah, sure, it’d be nice that everyone dealt with everyone. You learn more
and you gain more. There’s a subset of people who see it that way, I’m just telling you
the reality.
In terms of supporting faculty with school-age children, participants displayed
understanding of the importance of placing children in international schools. Although they want
to do more on that front, they are not confident in their capacity to deliver on that aspect when
hiring faculty. Another area in which less confidence was shown was in integrating and
supporting spouses of faculty who may not have a personal reason or interest in being in Hong
Kong other the work of their spouse.
Organization Findings
The findings presented in this section are related to the seven organization assumed assets
presented in Chapter Two, summarized in Table 7. Six assets were validated and one partially
validated.
Table 7
Validated Organization Assets
Assumed Organization Assets Validated Not Validated
Administrators have access to resources that
allow them to foster relationships with key centers
of knowledge

X
Administrators have financial resources allocated
to create attractive compensation and benefit
packages
X (Partially)
Administrators have academic and administrative
autonomy to make decisions
X
Administrators support investments in laboratory
and research infrastructure
X
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Table 7, continued
Assumed Organization Assets Validated Not Validated
Administrators support policies that are aligned
with the goal of integrating international faculty
in school life and the larger society

X
Administrators have leadership role models of
actively pursuing connections with key centers of
knowledge

X
Administrators provide both local and
international faculty equal opportunity for career
advancement and tenure
X

Because some of the organization assets are similar, they were combined to provide a
more concise and sequential presentation of findings supported by evidence from interviews and
document analysis.
Leadership Support, Administrative Autonomy, and Role Models
The level of administrative autonomy for hiring revealed itself in two ways: first, at the
school and department level and, second, at the office of the provost level. As stated earlier, the
hiring process is conducted at the department level through the formation of a hiring committee.
The office of the provost, through its role of resource allocator, redistributes power among the
departments and intervenes as needed or requested. An administrator explained,
So, de facto, the department head has all the power. The dean really doesn’t have that
much power. The dean is totally dependent on the departments to deliver. So, in
practice, the department and the provost have the power because the department head will
handle the hiring and the provost allocates overall university budget by school. So, the
department heads tell the dean how many new faculty they want to hire, the dean
negotiates with the provost, but once funds are secured, department heads manage the
resources.
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The office of the provost will also exercise its power in support of hiring senior faculty
who may require extra funding or some adjustments to the compensation and benefits package to
make it more attractive in a negotiation with a particular candidate. Also, at the provost level,
the different dimensions of diversity are tracked to inform hiring.
As mentioned, the typical profile of an academic at HKUST is that of a renowned
ethnically Asian academic who studied in the United States, built a career, and returned to take a
position of leadership or work their way up the ranks. HKUST’s location and the context of
Hong Kong within Asia make it more attractive to people with a connection to the region, or, as
most participants said, someone with a reason to be in Hong Kong and Asia. This profile is
reinforced by those in positions of leadership, such as past presidents, provosts, deans and other
members of the faculty. The table below provides brief biographies of the past and current
presidents of HKUST as role models.

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Table 8
Profile of HKUST Presidents

Name Dr. Woo Chia-Wei Dr. Chu Ching-Wu Dr. Tony F. Chan Dr. Wei Shyy
Birth/Nationality Shanghai, China (U.S.
Citizen)
Changsha, Hunan,
China (U.S. Citizen)
Hong Kong (U.S.
Citizen)
Taiwan (U.S.
Citizenship)
Education Georgetown College
(BSc) - USA
Washington University
in St. Luis (MA, Ph.D.) -
USA

Taiwan Provincial
Cheng Kung
University (BSc) -
Taiwan
Fordham University
(MSc) – USA
University of
California San Diego
(Ph.D.) - USA
California Institute of
Technology (BSc &
MSc) - USC
Stanford University
(PhD) - USA

Tsing Hua
University (BSc) -
Taiwan
University of
Michigan (MSc &
Ph.D.) - USA

Approx. # of
years in the US
33 37 40 31
Key Held
Positions
Prof. at Northwestern U.
and the U. of Illinois;
Chairman, Physics and
Astronomy Department
at Northwestern U.;
Provost, Revelle College,
UC San Diego; President
of San Francisco State U.
(first Chinese-American
to head a major
university in the United
States)
Associate Prof. of
Physics, Cleveland
State U.; Prof. of
Physics, U. of
Houston; Director of
the Texas Center for
Superconductivity and
T.L.L. Temple Chair
of Science

Assist. Director of the
Mathematical and
Physical Sciences
Directorate, US
National Science
Foundation; Prof. of
Computer Science, Yale
U.; Prof. of
Mathematics, Chair of
the Dep. of
Mathematics, Dean of
Physical Sciences,
Founding Director of
the Institute for Pure
and Applied
Mathematics, UCLA
Prof. of Aerospace
Engineering,
Mechanics and
Engineering
Science, U. of
Florida; Clarence
L. “Kelly” Johnson
Collegiate
Professor and
Chairman of the
Dep. of Aerospace
Engineering of the
U. of Michigan

Position at
HKUST
Founding President, from
1991 to 2001
President, from 2001 to
2009
President, from 2009 to
2018
Provost and Chair
Prof. of
Mechanical and
Aerospace
Engineering, 2010
to 2013; Executive
VP & Provost,
2013 to 2018;
President, 2018 to
Present

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Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits
On the topic of resources to offer competitive packages and benefits, conditions at
HKUST have changed over the last 27 years. The university is in a new context. In the early
days, the organization made compensation and benefits the center of its hiring strategy, but this
has changed. As previously mentioned, salaries remain competitive, but some benefits of the
early days are no longer available, as explained by a current faculty member:
Salaries are certainly competitive with other top universities. I came here from a top
public U.S. university. It was not a financial loss. It’s not like 20 years ago when they
were giving these crazy expatriate packages with round trip tickets home and bonuses.
Yeah, that’s all gone.
While less competitive from a compensation standpoint, HKUST established a reputation as a
desirable place to work. Also, some of the benefits related to campus infrastructure, such as
housing, is still available and working well for the university.
Part of the university’s new context is the constraints of public funding and
accountability. Taking access to research funds as an example, in the early days, HKUST was
much more successful in obtaining funding given the relatively low level of competition in Hong
Kong. Now there is more research being done in Hong Kong, and resources have not expanded
in the same proportion. Another important fact is that, in the early days, sizable contributions
from private organizations went into building infrastructure, thus freeing up resources for a more
aggressive hiring agenda with packages to attract the best possible faculty. A senior faculty
member explained the state of research infrastructure and funding both in the early days and
now:
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Researchers follow the money. If there is no funding and infrastructure to do research,
there is no point. In the early days, most of the infrastructure was not built, but funding
was abundant, both by internal and external grants. The institution had enough funding
to maintain research projects even when grants weren’t obtained, which was very
attractive considering the risks of conducting breakthrough research. In this case,
funding wasn’t necessarily linked to success in the project, so giving a safety net. Things
are different now. The research profile and scientific production of Hong Kong
universities have risen. Consequently, the competition for funds has increased, but for
the most part, the funding has remained the same, so it is more competitive currently.
A valuable asset discussed during interviews was the discretion to allocate more funds
towards the hiring of senior faculty for specific strategic positions. For example, the provost and
president indicated support for departments hiring senior female faculty. The extra resources can
include hiring spouses or providing hiring committees with more negotiation power and
leverage. Analysis of over 30 postings for open faculty positions indicated that flexibility. The
listings indicate the availability of highly competitive salaries and benefits:
Salary is highly competitive and will be commensurate with qualifications and
experience. Fringe benefits including medical and dental benefits, annual leave, and
housing benefits will be provided where applicable. Initial appointment at
Assistant/Associate Professor level will generally be made on a 3-year contract,
renewable subject to agreement. A gratuity will be payable upon successful completion
of the contract.

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Resources to Access Global Networks
The way in which participants and faculty described the recruiting process indicates that
HKUST provides the resources to access and maintain relationships with the critical nodes of the
global academic network. These connections are not for the sole purpose of recruiting faculty,
but they do play an important role in that process. The typical hiring process previously
discussed implies a fair amount of financial and administrative resources to execute on them.
As mentioned, personal contacts and relationships help to identify, collect information,
and approach potential candidates. This common practice throughout the university constitutes
an organizational strength that results from having hired international faculty who, in turn, help
source new professors through their professional and personal relationships around the world.
Many participants refer to HKUST’s capacity to activate global networks to hire as part of its
DNA, and it traces back to the early days of the university as the first presidents and senior
leadership set priorities and engaged in global trips to source talents.
Research Infrastructure
HKUST developed research infrastructure and support over the years and transformed
these into critical elements of attractiveness in the hiring process, especially when targeting new
Ph.D. recipients. A faculty member described the importance of the work and research
environment:
I think that is probably maybe one of the most important factors. When they come here,
they have enough room to focus on their research. A lighter teaching load allow faculty
to spend more time on research. Because we are strict and have a very high hurdle for
tenure, rookies coming here know they will be able to work and gain support from very
reputable and productive researchers. This is probably one of the strongest arguments we
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have when making an offer. An environment that enables research productivity is very
important.
In addition to research infrastructure, the university provides research and teaching
support, materials, teaching assistants, and a rather welcoming and collaborative work
environment. As indicated by the chart below, 24% of all non-faculty staff at HKUST are
dedicated to supporting research, and another 6% support teaching.

Figure 2. HKUST non-academic staff as of July 2018.
Also, the structure of higher education in Hong Kong as well as the University Grants
Committee and the Research Grants Committee, which fund higher education and distribute
competitive funding for research, support HKUST’s positioning as a champion of securing
research grants. Another senior faculty member described his experience:
Fifteen years ago, the research support and infrastructure available was superior to those
of most U.S. universities. One example was the availability of research assistants, which
was something not common in the U.S., where Ph.D. students would normally take the
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role. Grant funds were also abundant, over 90 percent application success rate, currently
it has become more competitive, and the research infrastructure is a main attracting factor
for international faculty.
Research infrastructure and investment also play a retention role since research
professionals tend to stay in a lab where the infrastructure was put in place for them or at their
request as long as they have access to funding. For those interested in research in Asia, the
location of HKUST associated with its infrastructure makes is it a very appealing place to be.
Notwithstanding participants’ accounts of state-of-the-art research facilities and support, the
Strategic Plan 2022, in its Strategic Objective 2, reads as follows:
Undertake a definitive plan for renewal of research facilities: by critically reviewing and
projecting our needs in view of the current and emerging research landscape, and
undertaking renewal and upgrading of our research facilities to ensure our infrastructure
continues to be top-notch, relevant, and effective in supporting world-class research at
HKUST.
Policies and Practices to Integrate International Faculty
Integration policies and practices pursued by universities should be aligned with the
objective of hiring international faculty (Saltmarsh & Swirski, 2010). Models of full integration,
in which new faculty have all the conditions to participate in the academic, administrative, and
governance structure of the university tend to be more sustainable. Differentiated treatment,
rights, access to information, or career advancement plans between local and international
faculty may lead to conflicts and eventually the resignation of faculty (Jepsen et al., 2014). A
number of orientation and integrations programs exist at HKUST to welcome and support
international faculty and their families. Some of them take place at the university level, some are
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organized by the department, and there also a number of volunteer-led initiatives. International
faculty also integrate through occupying administrative positions.
One of the initiatives frequently mentioned is a mentorship program called “Faculty
Host” through which new faculty members are paired with a serving member of the faculty. The
objective is to help new faculty and their families get acclimated to life at the university and in
Hong Kong. Document analysis revealed that the leadership at HKUST is invested in
welcoming international faculty. The tone, language, and content of the new staff orientation
guide indicates that it was prepared for someone coming from outside Hong Kong. It includes
detailed information, guidance, and references about the city, language and culture, climate,
currency, public transportation, emergencies, education, electricity, telecommunications,
shopping and dining, banking, holidays, hospitals, visas, how to obtain ID cards, relocation
arrangements, and others. The welcome message, signed by President Wei Shyy, best
exemplifies this point:
In this online New Staff Orientation Guide, you will find lots of useful information to
help you adapt to a new life at HKUST and in Hong Kong. The Guide introduces you to
various staff orientation activities and meetings, an outline of campus life and
employment benefits, healthcare information, links to resources to help you and your
family relocate, some background information of the city of Hong Kong and how to go
around, and all the important steps you need to know to get your work life started at our
University.
Language plays an important role in the integration process. However, language affinity
groups will form naturally, posing some challenges for more comprehensive integration. These
affinity groups are also manifested in the workspace or informal gatherings. Since the large
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majority of the staff speak Chinese or Cantonese as their first language, some faculty recognize
that they cannot fully participate in certain social circles. Local staff members share a deeper
level of connection that extends beyond the workplace. One of the participants explained the
limitations of integration at work and in Hong Kong at large:
There is a distinction between integration and assimilation. HK, in general, is a society in
which three distinct groups are integrated and live around each other in harmony.
However, very little assimilation happens across language lines. Sometimes, these
dividing lines will manifest at work. Even though the official language of business is
English, it is common for people to break into side conversations in their languages of
comfort.
Career Advancement Opportunities
At HKUST, all faculty, regardless of origin or nationality, have the same opportunities
for career advancement and tenure. Also, many administrative and leadership positions are filled
by an international faculty. The high hurdles and requirement for tenure are taken into
consideration at the moment of hiring, with the objective of hiring individuals who can
ultimately succeed in the HKUST environment. A senior international faculty member described
confidence in the review and promotion system currently in place: “I’m part of the process now.
There is a very robust and transparent process of academic review here.”
It is important to note that at the highest levels of the administration, the typical profile of
a HKUST academic will prevail; usually renowned, ethnically Asian professors who studied in
the United States, built a career, and returned to take a position of leadership or work their way
up the ranks, similar to the profiles of current and past HKUST presidents. As the majority of
participants in the study were administrators, their views and considerations may reflect the
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administrative view of secure equal treatment for promotion and career advancement, and may
differ from faculty perspectives.
Summary of Validated Assets
In addition to the four contextual findings in the areas of institutional maturity, Western
orientation, location, and diversity that help understand HKUST’s promising practices in
international faculty attraction, recruitment, and retention, 17 of the 22 assumed assets were
validated after applying the KMO methodological approach. These practices are competitive
compensation packages and benefits, connections and access to centers of knowledge, the
recognition of the role and importance of international faculty, policies to integrate international
faculty and their families, strategies to recruit and retain, capacity to compete for talents globally,
and the necessary infrastructure to effectively engage in faculty internationalization.
Recommendations based on the findings are presented in Chapter Five.

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CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUATION
This promising practice case study used the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis model to
examine successes in the area of faculty internationalization by the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology (HKUST). The study focused on validating a series of assumed
knowledge, motivation, and organizational assets displayed by administrators as well as the
conditions leading to the successful implementation of policies, practices, programs, and
infrastructure projects to attract, hire and retain international faculty. Scanning of HKUST
website content, early exploratory contact with administrators, and extensive review of the
literature provided the basis for the list of assumed assets while validation was achieved through
interviews with administrators, members of the faculty, and document analysis, as presented in
Chapter Four and Table 9.
Table 9
Validated KMO Assumed Assets
Knowledge Motivation Organization
Validated Assets Administrators know
what are centers of
knowledge and how to
access them.

Administrators value
relationships that grant
access to centers of
knowledge.

Administrators have
access to resources that
allow them to foster
relationships with key
centers of knowledge.

Administrators know
what competitive
compensation and
benefits packages are and
how to structure them.

Administrators expect
that attractive
compensation and
benefits packages work.

Administrators have
academic and
administrative
autonomy to make
decisions.

Administrators know how
to compete for and hire
international faculty.

Administrators value
adopting policies to
integrate international
faculty in school life and
the larger society.
Administrators support
investments in
laboratory and research
infrastructure.

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Table 9, continued
Knowledge Motivation Organization
Validated Assets Administrators
understand the
importance and benefits
of having international
faculty.

Administrators value
academic freedom and
independence as
important conditions to
attract international
faculty.

Administrators support
policies that are aligned
to integrate international
faculty in school life
and the larger society.

Administrators know the
policies that better foster
an environment of
academic freedom.

Administrators believe
that faculty
internationalization is
strategic for the
university to meet its
mission goals.
Administrators have
leadership role models
of actively pursuing
connections with key
centers of knowledge.

Administrators know how
to develop and implement
strategies to recruit
international faculty.
Administrators provide
both local and
international faculty
equal opportunity for
career advancement and
tenure

Of the 17 validated assumed assets presented in Table 9, main themes were consolidated
to form four primary areas of potentially transferable practices. They include focus on quality
and diversity; strategies to recruit globally; competitive compensation packages and benefits; and
policies to integrate international faculty and their families.
Implementing faculty internationalization involves significant challenges from a resource
perspective. Having access to funds to structure competitive compensation and benefits
packages, building research facilities, housing, and other infrastructure projects is essential. It is
also necessary to recognize the complexity and multitude of internal and external factors that
influence institutions’ capacity to attract high-quality international faculty. Therefore the
practices recommended here should be approached carefully, taking into consideration
contextual imperatives sometimes beyond the decision-making power of leaders within a single
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university; such as location, political regime, economy, immigration laws, work visa rules,
language, culture, and other external contingencies.
None of these recommendations should be interpreted as requirements for success, but
rather reflections of what can be learned from this particular case study and that could be adapted
for different realities and needs. Furthermore, the discussion proposed here can only be relevant
for leaders and institutions with a declared commitment to becoming a highly internationalized
university. The strategic decisions taken by administrators to prioritize internationalization has
to match the organizational mission and must be supported by policies and strategic allocation of
financial resources (Childress, 2010; Dewey & Duff, 2009). In the case of HKUST, being
international is part of its identity and recruiting high-quality international faculty is a central
strategy in fulfilling its vision and mission.
Chapter Five addresses the main research question proposed for the study, “What
recommendations in the areas of knowledge, motivation, and organizational resources may be
appropriate for solving the problem of faculty internationalization at another organization?” The
chapter is organized in three sections: the first presents four potentially transferable promising
practices; the second provides an implementation plan for the four recommendations with
estimated timelines, required resources, and the evaluation for each recommendation; the third
and the final section covers future research to consider, then the conclusion.
Potentially Transferable Promising Practices
Of the 22 KMO assets assumed for this study, 17 have been validated. From the
validated assets, and understanding the contextual constraints previously mentioned, four
necessary conditions for success have been identified and presented here as potentially
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transferable and adoptable by other institutions choosing to engage in faculty
internationalization.
The first involves viewing internationalization of faculty as a result of prioritizing quality
and diversity; the second, the development and execution of strategies to recruit global talents;
the third, the improvement of capacity to structure and offer competitive compensation packages
and benefits; and the forth, the implementation of policies to integrate international faculty and
their families in the university community and society at large. A brief discussion of each
potentially transferrable practice are presented in sequence.
Focus on Quality and Diversity
A serious approach to faculty internationalization implies that it is a relevant aspect of a
university’s core values, and recognized by key internal and external stakeholders as a critical
success factor for the improvement of the institution in the pursuit of its mission. A high level of
commitment to succeed is needed to establish consensus around the vital role that faculty can
play in the internationalization of all practices at the university that contribute to improving
quality of education. In addition, this study reveals that the underlining guiding principles for a
successful strategy is the institutional commitment to quality and diversity.
In the case of HKUST, it became clear that while hiring in the early days was strongly
driven by quality, nationality, and origin of Ph.D., not much attention was given to other aspects
of diversity. However, in its current and more mature state, the university is looking at diversity
and representation in a much broader sense to also address issues of gender, race, cultural
background, and personal interests.

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Strategies to Recruit Globally
Upon securing consensus and support to engage in faculty internationalization based on
quality and diversity, one of the observable practices is to make sure hiring processes are
adjusted from a local to a global approach. Actions as basic as reviewing the wording used in
announced open positions and job descriptions; where these positions are advertised; proactive
attendance of recruitment events; and leveraging personal networks to access potential
candidates, are some of the recommended practices to be incorporated in the hiring process.
Adopting new hiring practices does not mean no longer hiring local faculty, but rather making
every position available for applicants on a global scale, as opposed to just local. At HKUST,
these behaviors are observed routinely as all faculty positions are announced globally and open
for applicants from all over the world, including domestic applicants. More proactive actions
include attending discipline-specific conferences and placing advertisements in major scientific
journals and academic publications. Depending on the need and seniority of a position, personal
networks granting access to centers of knowledge in North America, Europe, and Oceania can be
activated to identify candidates, obtain market intelligence, and initiate conversations.
Leveraging networks has granted HKUST much success in the early years of the university, and
it is still widely used.
Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits
Perhaps the most challenging part of the process and the one which defines the
institution’s genuine commitment to faculty internationalization. It involves a critical internal
look to determine how competitive currently offered compensation is compared to the market
and especially to institutions that have successfully hired high quality and diverse faculty.
Adjustments to compensation alone can represent a significant challenge, demanding a financial
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commitment that the institution will have to take very seriously. Reviewing benefits packages
and adjusting them to serve the needs of international faculty and their families should follow;
adjustments in this area may also present significant financial challenges. In this process, the
institution is faced with its financial reality and pressed against difficult decisions involving the
availability of funds, redefining priorities and finding new sources of revenue to sustain changes.
Alternative sources of revenue may vary depending on the kind of institution and legal regime
under which it operates. In Hong Kong, as a public university, HKUST has been able to
leverage public funding as well as private donations from the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Currently, compensation is not the critical winning point for HKUST when competing for
international faculty talent, since the circumstances of funding and institutional reputation have
changed significantly. However, in terms of benefits, there are still some important differentials
used to attract candidates, such as housing, research infrastructure, and end of contract bonus.
Nevertheless, in the particular issue of compensation, for institutions starting to engage in faculty
internationalization, HKUST's experiences of the early years may be a better reference,
especially if the university in question still needs to build a strong reputation. As one participant
put it, the package in the early days “had to be something one could not refuse." Moreover, even
though participants at HKUST recognize that compensation is not as strong as it used to be, one
of the objectives of the Strategic Plan 2022 is to strengthen faculty remuneration and package.
Policies to Support the Integration of International Faculty and their Families
Policies should be designed to address specific contextual needs, cultural needs, and
challenges particular to the country or region of the institution implementing a faculty
internationalization strategy. Producing such policies can be challenging as they should address
the needs of international faculty and at the same time abide by principles of equality of
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treatment on all benefits and opportunity for career advancement for domestic and international
faculty.
Integration policies should also be designed to be flexible and adjustable to changing
needs and circumstances. It should be the institution's constant pursuit to create the best
conditions for integration. However, the level of integration achieved is substantially dependent
on a series of human interactions, personal experiences, preferences, efforts, and openness to
assimilate local practices and culture, as well as the interactions with the environment outside the
university, over which administrators have little control. Also, the policies targeting just the
direct hire are insufficient to promote integration; family members and their needs are as
essential and have to be taken into account.
At HKUST, several orientation and integrations programs welcome and support
international faculty and their families. Some of them happen at the university level, the
department organizes some, and there also some volunteer-led initiatives. Faculty also integrate
through occupying administrative positions, just like any local faculty would. In addition to peer
matching and mentoring types of programs, HR documents and guides available to new hires are
written to address the needs of individuals and families that are new to Hong Kong. Also, since
HKUST offers high-quality housing on campus, it contributes to integration for the proximity
that family members can maintain with each other as well as the access to campus amenities and
services that are intended to make life easier. This is not to say that perfect integration happens
at HKUST, the challenges are many and continuously evolving, but there are programs and
policies in place to deal with most of the issues and seek improvement in some areas of need.

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Implementation Plan and Evaluation
In this section, a summary of recommendations with suggested action steps, timelines,
and challenges is presented in Table 10. A general discussion of recommendations, action steps,
and evaluation follows next.
Table 10
Summary of Recommendations, Action Steps, Estimated Timelines, Constraints and Challenges
Recommendations Action Steps Timeline Constraints and
Challenges
Focus on Quality
and Diversity
• Conduct internal study/data
collection about the current
state of faculty diversity
1 month Time from the office of
institutional research,
HR, and faculty affairs

• Conduct survey to
understand attitude and
perspectives towards
diversity
2 to 3 months Contract organizational
climate and culture
assessment provider

• Use data from the study and
survey to determine needs
and involve key
stakeholders
4 to 6 months Time from leadership,
President/Provost/Deans

• Form task force to propose
actions to address identified
needs
4 to 6 months,
then ongoing
Time from appointed
members of the task
force
Strategies to Recruit
Globally
• Review the current process
of opening and promoting
open positions
2 to 3 months Time from HR and
heads of hiring
committees

• Map key global
publications where
positions should be
advertised
1 month Appoint senior
administrator(s) to
conduct a benchmark
study with peer
institutions

• Map key conferences in
critical areas of hiring to
attend
1 month Time from senior faculty
at each department to
provide a list

• Identify key individuals
with global connections
2 to 3 months,
ongoing
monitoring
Time from deans, heads
of departments, and
senior faculty to create
an inventory of existing
relationships
Table 10, continued
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Recommendations Action Steps Timeline Constraints and
Challenges
Competitive
Compensation
Packages and
Benefits
• Conduct benchmark study with
peer institutions that have done
well in this area
4 to 6
months,
ongoing
monitoring
Time of head of HR
and Finance
Outside compensation
evaluation consultant
• Determine if there is a gap to be
filled
1 to 2
months
Time of head of HR
and Finance

• Evaluate alternative revenue
sources to close or reduce the gap
4 to 6
months
Time of the President,
Provost, and CFO

• Secure budget to implement
improved packages and benefits
1 year,
ongoing
Time of the President,
Provost, and CFO
Policies to
Support the
Integration of
International
Faculty and their
Families
• Form Integration Committee with
representatives from Faculty
Affairs, HR, Finance, Deans, and
Compliance, and other deemed
critical stakeholders to oversee
policy review and implementation
process
3 months
and ongoing
Time allocated to
committee meetings
and oversight work
• Conduct a study of what are the
main challenges international
professionals face in a particular
country or region
3 months Allocate internal HR to
conduct the study or
hire local consultant
specialized in
relocation to assess
needs
• Determine the extent to which
existing policies and support
services for newly hired faculty
address identified needs of
international faculty
2 month and
ongoing
Head of HR to produce
a report on existing
policies, gaps that need
addressing, and
recommendation of
adjustments or new
policies
• Identify potential areas of conflict
with local faculty resulting from
specific policies to address
international faculty needs
2 months
and ongoing
Head of HR to work
with faculty affairs to
determine potential
areas of conflict and
how to address them
• Announce new policies with the
timing of implement and effect
2 month Office of the President,
Provost, Faculty
Affairs, Deans, and
members of the
committee
• Integration Committee to evaluate
implementation in monthly
meetings in the first 12 months and
determine the frequency of
meetings after that
12 months
and ongoing
Time allocated to
committee meetings
and oversight work

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Recommendations, Action Steps, and Evaluation
The four recommendations presented in Table 10 and briefly discussed below, are basic
conditions for administrators to implement an effective faculty internationalization strategy. The
implementation action steps suggested are intended to serve as guides and critical elements of the
process and should be adapted according to the institutions' context. A brief discussion of the
implementation of each of the recommendations will seek to expand on the items of the
summary table and conclude with the evaluation plan for each recommendation.
The Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2006) four levels evaluation model was adopted. This
model proposes conducting evaluation at the reaction, learning, behavior, and results levels.
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2006) originally developed and used this approach to evaluate the
effectiveness of training in a corporate setting. Since then, it has been expanded to assess other
forms of training in the academic field and interventions beyond training.
The four levels approach establishes reaction as the lowest level of assessment, which is
usually obtained through a survey to measure the level of satisfaction. The next level, learning,
seeks to measure if knowledge or skills were acquired during training, commonly resulting from
the delta in performance showed through pre and post-training assessment. In its original format,
the model requires collecting data about reaction and learning when it is most available; at the
end of training. However, for levels three and four, behavior and results, there are more
challenges to obtaining quality information for evaluation, which is a reason why they are not
frequently used. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2006) argue that it is necessary to make an effort
to engage in assessment at those levels to be able to fully understand if the training or
intervention produced the necessary behaviors and expected results. Behavior can be best
evaluated through observation, so it is vital that supervisors of the individuals subjected to
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training or intervention be aware of the expected changes; provide a suitable environment and
incentives to support the new expected behavior; and be able to report back on what they have
experienced. So finally, the results should be measured against goals set before the training or
intervention.
For this study, the model was adapted to assess the success of the recommended
transferable practices. Since none of the recommendations involve training, level one was
adapted to indicate internal assessment to establish the baseline from which the institution will
start implementation of recommended strategies for faculty internationalization. Levels two to
four are intended to generate indicator of learning, behavior, and results, as proposed by the four
levels approach. The four levels approach provides an intuitive model useful for the types of
recommendations made in this study; however, it should be used with caution. Its simplicity
may not fully account for external variables affecting the outcomes of interventions.
Focus on Quality and Diversity. At the elementary level, in order to determine needs
and inform decisions, an effort should be made to gather information about the profile of faculty
and current status of internationalization and diversity. Information regarding nationality and
origin of terminal degree, for instance, usually retained by HR, would be one type of report to be
used to inform discussions and define objectives. Besides, an institutional survey to understand
attitude and perspectives towards diversity and internationalization should help measure
openness and support for the idea of further diversifying the faculty body, and how much effort
may be required to adjust perceptions, values, and attitude.
Next, a series of actions can be taken to secure buy-in from critical stakeholders. The
highest leadership at the university, supported by deans of schools and heads of departments,
would come to a consensus, based on the data collected, to initiate a process of involving other
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key stakeholders. The order in which key stakeholders may rank can vary slightly by institution,
but in general, it would include heads of departments, members of hiring committees, deans,
representatives of the faculty, and HR. The identified stakeholders should be brought into the
discussion as early as possible to make contributions, express concerns, define parameters of
quality and diversity, discuss how the new initiatives would affect their work, their departments,
and the university. One of the objectives in this stage is to have stakeholders take ownership and
willingly lead the process. Ownership of the process can be obtained through a task force to
propose actions to address identified needs. Composed by representatives of the stakeholder
groups identified, the task force would receive the mandate to produce recommendations to
address the needs identified in previous steps and serve as advisory to the leadership on issues of
faculty internationalization.
The timeline for implementation of the steps recommended in Table 10 is intended to last
about 15 months total. Steps one and two can happen simultaneously and should take a total of
three months. The next phase would include a series of actions to engage stakeholders; four to
six months should be allocated for this critical part of creating awareness and involvement to
form a task force. Once the task force is formed, another four to six months would be the period
for the group to convene, gather inputs from the broader community, and present
recommendations. After this initial heavy work, the task force would remain active in its role of
providing feedback, intelligence, oversight, and advice.
The constraints and challenges associated with this recommendation mainly involves the
use of internal resources and time of individuals entrusted with making the topic of faculty
internationalization a priority. It has to come from the highest leadership. Significant amounts
of time of the president’s agenda, the provost, the senior international officer, the vice president
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of HR, faculty affairs, and deans, would be the most significant resources. The challenge may be
the opportunity cost of detracting from priorities and obligations. Depending on the size of the
organization, institutions may consider contracting an outside organization specialized in climate
and culture assessment to help determine the level of effort needed to involve critical
stakeholders and adjust values and culture towards a more welcoming community for
international faculty. Not to underestimate the importance and value of the time of the
individuals involved in the various action steps proposed, especially at the task force level, but it
may be necessary to create incentives for such engagement. At least, participants should not feel
penalized or overloaded by having to engage in these initiatives in addition to all the regular
work.
Evaluation Plan. The first level of evaluation proposed include the delivery of the initial
reports recommended as they provide essential information to support initial actions by leaders.
At the second level, learnings from those reports are absorbed by the senior leadership leading to
third level behaviors such as forming the faculty internationalization task force, and sharing
information with members of the task force so that their work can begin and more stakeholders
groups brought to the table. The final objective and fourth level of this recommendation
evaluation would be a fully functional task force that meet regularly to deliberate over emerging
issues, engage with different stakeholders, produce a report with recommendations and an action
plan. Table 11 below presents a summary of the four levels of evaluation.

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Table 11
Evaluation of Focus on Quality and Diversity
Level 1 - Baseline Level 2 - Learning Level 3 - Behavior Level 4 - Results
Delivery of the report
on the current level of
faculty
internationalization

Delivery of the report
on institutional
climate and culture
Top leaders and
members of the task
force know the
current state and
organizational
attitude towards
hiring more
international faculty

Formation of the task
force

Top leaders and
members of the task
force can articulate
identified needs and
engage other
stakeholders in the
process

Members of the task
force meet regularly
and engage with
various stakeholders

Task force produces a
report with
recommendations and
an action plan to
address identified
needs

Strategies to Recruit Globally. A review of the current process of opening and
publicizing faculty positions should undergo an internal review to determine whether current
practices may need to change to reflect intentionality of recruiting globally. This process should
include a review of tone and text used in the description of open positions, in order to make sure
it speaks to a broader global audience. The next step involves mapping key global publications
where positions could be advertised, such as scientific journals, websites, or printed media that
reach a global audience of scientists in general and in specific disciplines. The mapping process
should collect information about the costs to advertise so that these resources can be made
available as needed by hiring committees and HR.
Similarly, mapping key conferences in critical regions of hiring should follow. Most
frequently, different disciplines hold annual conferences that serve as job fairs for academics. It
is essential not only to map these conferences but make a commitment to attend them and hold
interviews with prospects regularly. For HKUST, these events are particularly useful to recruit
entry-level faculty.
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Formal and informal connections that grant access to centers of knowledge that produce
large numbers of scholars are critical, thus the recommendation for creating an internal inventory
of international connections that current faculty may have due to academic collaborations or
personal affinity. The importance of personal networks cannot be understated; they can be the
source of referrals and information to help identifying prospects and approaching them in a
targeted way, especially when hiring more senior faculty. Taking advantage of personal
networks increases the chances of identifying prospects that might be more inclined to move to a
particular region or country due to a variety of professional and personal reasons. Such contacts
may be particularly successful with pools of academics of a specific diaspora group, that at some
point, if provided with the right conditions, may choose to go back to their country of origin.
Most of the resources needed are internal allocation of time of individuals in different
departments to produce reports and provide information. Additionally, senior and mid-level
administrators may have to allocate time to conduct benchmark studies with peer institutions.
Once implemented, funding would be required to advertise open positions in the identified
relevant publications and journals, as well as travel funds to attend networking and recruiting
conferences. The same precautions with demanding individuals’ time and attention should be
taken here to avoid disincentives such as overburdening the regular workload and potentially
creating resistance.
All four steps included in this initiative could be conducted simultaneously and could last
from four to six months.
Evaluation plan. The initial results of work towards the successful implementation of
this recommendation would include the delivery of reports on internal practices pertaining to
how positions are opened and advertised, which publications and communications channels
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would best serve the objective of hiring globally, and an internal inventory of existing
international connections or collaboration among members of the faculty. These reports should
generate the necessary information and knowledge described in level two, serving as the basis
for the actions and behaviors that should be observed in level three; such as efforts to pursue
more international collaborations through formal or informal channels, and increase in
attendance of international conferences with the purpose of networking and conducting
preliminary interviews with prospect new international faculty. Table 12 below presents a
summary of the four levels of evaluation proposed for the implementation of a strategy to recruit
globally.
Table 12
Evaluation of Strategies to Recruit Globally
Level 1 - Baseline Level 2 - Learning Level 3 - Behavior Level 4 - Results
Delivery of report on
current practices for
advertising positions

Delivery of study on
the best publications
to advertise positions

Identification of key
international
conferences to attend

Delivery of map of
currently existing
international
connections
HR and heads of
departments know the
best channels to
advertise open
positions

Head of departments
and hiring
committees know
which conferences to
attend to recruit

Head of departments
and deans know of
existing networks that
can be leveraged
Proactive pursuit of
formal and informal
connections with
centers of knowledge

Attendance of
conferences and
allocation of funds to
support initiatives
Increased number of
partnerships

Increase in the
number of channels
with a global reach
through which
positions are
advertised

Increase in the
number of interviews
conducted at
conferences

Increase in the
number of
applications and
ultimately hiring of
international faculty

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Structure and offer competitive compensation packages and benefits. The
improvement of compensation and benefits may start with a comparative benchmark study with
peer institutions that have done well in the area of faculty internationalization. While
compensation alone does not guarantee success in pursuing faculty internationalization, without
minimally competitive packages, the chances of succeeding are almost inexistent. Collecting
information and comparing benefits and compensation with peer institutions can provide insights
about possible existing gaps and also leanings of how packages are structured. Institutions in the
same region that have successfully attracted international faculty would make the best references
since they are conditioned to similar contextual constraints.
The main objective of the initial proposed step is to determine if there are gaps to be
filled and inform the size of financial commitment required to seriously engage in faculty
internationalization and what measure could be taken to gradually reduce the gap. This
evolution from previous steps involves important considerations of budget priorities from the
existing sources of revenue or alternative sources to make the necessary financial commitment to
start a movement towards closing the compensation and benefits gap. At the end of the process,
decisionmakers and stakeholders should be well informed of the necessary resources needed to
support faculty internationalization as it pertains not only to compensation but also to
infrastructure investments that support hiring and retention.
In terms of the resource requirements at this point, there would be continuous leveraging
of internal resources to collect and produce data and reports, but ultimately the leadership of the
institution would have to make a decision, based on the data collected, to whether or not the
institution is in the position to further engage in a faculty internationalization strategy.
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The timeline for implementation can be significantly long, and it is important to take a
long-term approach. Starting with the time necessary to gather information and mobilize the
leadership, the board of trustees, and other critical groups around meaningful resource allocation
and decisions. Four to six months are suggested to conduct the benchmark study, either directly
or through an outside provider, followed by up to two months of internal discussions around gaps
in compensation and benefits that may need to be closed. Next, a series of critical discussions
around relocating budget or finding new sources of funding should occur to determine the
institutional capacity to sustain its engagement in faculty internationalization. Once the path to
secure funding is determined, twelve more months would be allowed to secure the funds and
initiate implementation.
Evaluation plan. In level one, the conclusion and delivery of the compensation and
benefits comparative study should inform the leadership and members of the task force of
existing gaps. With that knowledge, leaders can determine the size of the gap and produce level
three behaviors and actions to figure out if they would be able to address those needs through
relocating funds or figuring out new sources of revenue. The level four impact expected should
be the actual budgetary decisions made to support improvements in compensation and benefits.
Table 13 below presents a summary of the four levels of evaluation.
Table 13
Evaluation of Competitive Compensation Packages and Benefits
Level 1 - Baseline Level 2 - Learning Level 3 - Behavior Level 4 - Results
Comparative study
finalized and
delivered to the
leadership and
members of the task
force
Leadership knows of
existing gaps in the
institution’s
compensation and
benefits packages
Top leadership
engage in proactive
actions to allocate
funding to support
initiatives
Budget allocations
are made to address
compensation and
benefits gaps

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Policies to support the integration of international faculty and their families. To
create an environment where international faculty would be comfortable and welcome, it is vital
to understand their needs and check if current policies in place may need adjustments.
Integrating new individuals to a team or community requires that the current members of a group
be involved in these efforts. The steps proposed here should benefit from the findings resulting
from implementation of the first recommendation of focus on quality and diversity. Perhaps, the
best approach would be to involve some of the members of the task force in this initiative.
Given their accumulated knowledge, they could serve as the core group to conduct a review of
existing policies, make recommendations, and oversee the implementation and evaluation
process.
Once formed, the integration committee would either identify internal resources or
contract out a study of what are the main challenges of international professionals in the
particular region. This information, together with the review of current policies, should provide
the committee with sufficient evidence to move into the next step with well-founded
recommendations of any necessary changes to existing policies or elaboration and
implementation new ones.
One of the special mandates of the committee would be to not only improve or create
better conditions to attract and retain international faculty but also make sure that the changes
proposed do not negatively affect local faculty. All parties involved in the process should pay
special attention to potential conflicts or the perception that certain groups of faculty are
receiving special or preferential treatment in detriment of others.
Revised or new policies should eventually be announced to the entire university
community informing the effective date of implementation, roles and responsibilities, and
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expected outcomes. After that, the committee should meet regularly to discuss milestones of
progress, evaluate implementation, and recommend necessary adjustments.
The timeline of implementation should last about 24 months, and be aligned with the
university's annual calendar; especially if the institution follows any hiring cycle so that the
intake of new faculty may coincide with the new or reformed policies being put in place. Almost
all of the steps proposed for implementation are expected to be permanent, with recurrent
meetings, reviews and other activities taking place with the periodicity deemed necessary by the
leadership and the committee.
It will be important to think of the incentives to keep key actors involved in the process,
especially members of the committee, to engage and allow those under their units to execute on
many of these initiatives.
Evaluation plan. In level one evaluation, administrators would be looking at forming an
integration committee to assess and advise the leadership on issues related to integration, at
which point it would be essential to observe a positive attitude from members of the task force
and other departments towards joining the committee. The report on challenges for international
professionals living in the country or region would also be a part of the basic requirements for
proceeding with reviewing, recommending, and implementing policies to integrate international
faculty and families. In level two, knowledge obtained as a result of the reports becomes the
basis for actions demonstrated in level three through regular meetings of the committee, and the
policy recommendations resulting from the work of the committee. The impact observed in level
four should include the actual implementation of recommended policies and an ongoing system
of monitoring, evaluation, and improvement of policies. Table 14 below summarizes the
evaluation plan.
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Table 14
Evaluation of Policies to Support the Integration of International Faculty and their Families
Level 1 - Baseline Level 2 - Learning Level 3 - Behavior Level 4 - Results
Engagement of
members of the task
force and other
stakeholders in the
integration committee

Delivery of report on
key challenges for
international
professionals in the
region
Top leaders and
members of the
committee know
what is important for
international faculty
and their families and
what policies may
need to be adjusted to
serve those needs
Members of the
committee meet
regularly

The committee makes
policy
recommendations

Top leaders consult
with the committee
frequently for advice
Policy
implementation

System of ongoing
review and
assessment of
policies

Future Research
Recognizing the limitations of a single institution case study, one of the ways in which
further studies could explore faculty internationalization would be to conduct comparative
studies. One of the objectives of comparative studies could be to isolate institutional assets that
play a crucial role in faculty internationalization from contextual influences that play either a
positive or negative role in institutional capacity to attract and hire global faculty. Short-term
faculty mobility would also be an interesting area of investigation, since highly sought after
scholars are hard to retain and may have multiple appointments. Lastly, a study to evaluate the
impact on morale and competition on campus when distinct compensation, benefits, and career
paths are offered to domestic versus international faculty. The results of such studies could
provide scholars and administrators interested in this subject a more complete picture of
opportunities and challenges related to faculty internationalization.
Conclusion
This promising practice case study was intended to bring the issue of faculty
internationalization into the discussion of comprehensive internationalization, since it is usually
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142
left aside by higher education leaders focused on recruiting international students, promoting
study abroad opportunities, and internationalizing the curriculum. By raising awareness of how
vital faculty internationalization is, it also sought to provide leaders in higher education with a
roadmap to address the necessary conditions to engage in the process of attracting, hiring, and
retaining high-quality global faculty. HKUST proved to be a valid case study for successfully
differentiating itself through a high level of internationalization centered on hiring the best
quality possible international professors. However, this performance needs to be understood in
the context of Hong Kong and the multitude of interrelated external factors that contribute direct
or indirectly to the observed performance.
In conclusion, the four recommendations made as potentially transferrable practices
represent the main learnings from the study since they provide the basic foundation for
universities to seriously pursue faculty internationalization. The pre-condition for embarking in
such a demanding venture is a team of leaders who understand the positioning and mission of an
institution. It starts with a declared mission and commitment to achieve excellence at all levels,
including faculty. Thus, the first recommendation suggests adjusting the discussion from merely
faculty internationalization to the context of quality and diversity. Secondly, the recruitment
strategies should reflect the priority of the institution and have a global reach, leveraging
personal and institutional networks to achieve objectives. Third, an earnest and realistic internal
look at compensation and benefits packages should inform the institution of its level of
competitiveness and needs for improvement in this central area, demonstrating authentic
commitment from the leadership. Finally, an environment with integration policies that are
welcoming, non-discriminatory, and supportive of international faculty and their families
complete the set of recommendations resulting from this study.
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143
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APPENDIX A
Interview Protocol - Administrators
Interviews will start with a short introduction of the researcher, purpose of the study and the
interview, followed by short introduction of the interviewee stating his/her role at HKUST
related to the attraction, hiring and retention of international faculty, and how long he/she has
been on the job. Upon assuring full confidentiality and agreement of interviewer, the recording
will begin. Minimum notetaking is expected to happen, only in the presence of very relevant
behaviors, body language, or other forms of communication not captured in the recording. Other
relevant physical environmental setting issues may also trigger additional notetaking.
Question 1: Please tell me about the importance of international faculty for the university.
(KMO)
Probe/Follow up: What is your definition of international faculty?
Has it always been like this?
Can you share the history of how this topic evolved over the years you
have been here?
Question 2: Can you describe the process to recruit international faculty? (KO)
Probe/Follow up: How is the process different from hiring local faculty?
Question 3: How does global competition influence the way your team is structured,
compensation packages and benefits are put together, career plans are offered, and positions are
advertised? (KO)
Probe/Follow up: Has it been effective?
Question 4: Can you comment on the importance, or weight, of these factors on a prospect
decision to join HKUST (KO):
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a) External: political, legal, social and economic environment
b) Internal: working conditions, policies and perceived climate
c) Competitive compensation and benefits
d) Academic freedom
e) Research opportunities
f) Career opportunities/tenure
Question 5: What are the challenges and benefits associated with attracting, integrating and
retaining international faculty? (MO)
Probe/Follow up: How is it related to your overall internationalization strategy?
Does rankings and reputation factor in?
Question 6: How aligned is the university senior leadership in terms of the value and
contributions made by international faculty? (MO)
Probe/Follow up: Can you give examples of how that is demonstrated?
Question 7: In your opinion, what impact, if any, do international faculty have on the
following areas:
a) Boost research, publication and citations
b) Enrich students’ learning experience
c) Improve management
d) Boost internationalization
e) Improve rankings and reputation
Question 8: Does the university have a clear goal to reach in terms of attracting and retaining
international faculty? (MO)
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Question 9: Can you describe the support structure available to integrate international faculty
and their families? (O)
Question 10: How do you compare the university’s success in attracting international faculty
with other HKG and Chinese institutions? (KO)
Probe/Follow up: Do you think there is anyone doing it better?
APPENDIX B
Interview Protocol – Faculty
Interviews will start with a short introduction of the researcher, purpose of the study and the
interview, followed by short introduction of the interviewee stating his/her role at HKUST.
Upon assuring full confidentiality and agreement of interviewer, the recording will begin.
Minimum notetaking is expected to happen, only in the presence of very relevant behaviors,
body language, or other forms of communication not captured in the recording. Other relevant
physical environmental setting issues may also trigger additional notetaking.
Recruitment
Question 1: Please tell me how you learned about your current position and the process of
getting here?
Question 2: I am going to go through a list of economic, noneconomic and academic-related
themes that I’d like you to comment on their importance for you and for other professionals in
academia. I would also like to know if you recall taking them into consideration at the time of
your decision:
Economic Factors
a) Earnings/Salary
b) Working conditions
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c) Employment opportunities back in your country of origin
d) Career development opportunities
e) Economic stability
Noneconomic Factors
f) Quality of life
g) Political stability
h) Opportunities for family members
i) Safety and Security
j) Discrimination
Academic Factors
k) Public funding for research
l) Quality of academic facilities
m) Academic freedom
n) Prestige of the institution in general and in your field
o) Teaching load
Retention
Question 3: Do you feel like your work is valued at HKUST.?
Question 4: Are you satisfied with the current career opportunities available at HKUST?
Question 5: Do you see myself working here in a year?
Question 6: Would you apply for this job again?
Question 7: Would you refer someone to work at HKUST?

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APPENDIX C
Document Review Protocol
Documents will be critically analyzed to confirm their relevance for the study, original purpose
and context in which they were written, the target audience, author and original source of
information. Below is table of the kinds of documents expected to be reviewed and the data to be
analyzed:

Anticipated documents
to be selected
Data to be analyzed KMO to be
validated
HR policy documents Policies regarding local versus international
faculty
Support services for the integration of new hires
KMO
Currently open positions Restrictions, compensation, benefits KM
Strategic plans University priority and goals M
Key administrators’ bios Role models and policy alignment MO
Others TBD KMO
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APPENDIX D

Summary of Assumed Knowledge Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to Achieve the
Performance Goal

Assumed Knowledge Assets Interview Document
Analysis
Declarative Factual

Knowledge of what are centers of
knowledge and where they are located
(CS) (CB) (F)
What are the key centers of
knowledge/universities with
which you have
collaborations?
List of
currently signed
MoUs
Knowledge of what are competitive
compensation and benefits (LM) (CB) (F)
What do you consider to be
competitive compensation and
benefits that makes you
attractive to international
faculty
HR policy
documents as
well as
currently open
positions
Knowledge of what competition is like to
hire international faculty (LM) (F)
What is competition like in
attracting new international
faculty?
N/A
Declarative Conceptual

Knowledge of policies that benefit
integration of international faculty (CS)
(CB) (C)
Can you give me an example
of policies you have in place
that promote the integration of
international faculty?
Policy
documents and
relocation
support services
Knowledge of the benefits of having
international faculty (CS) (C)
Can you give me examples of
benefits of having
international faculty on
campus?
N/A
Knowledge of policies that better foster
an environment of academic freedom
(LM) (C)
Can you describe what is the
overall environment or
perception of academic
freedom?
Review policy
documents
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Knowledge of values, beyond
compensation, that are important for
international faculty (LM) (C)
Beyond compensation, what
other factor influence decision
of international faculty?
HR documents
and open
vacancies
announcement
Knowledge of the impact international
faculty have in boosting reputation and
rankings (CS) (C)
What role international faculty
play in boosting reputation and
rankings?
N/A
Procedural

Knowledge of how to structure
competitive packages of benefits that are
attractive to international faculty (LM)
(CB) (P)
Can you share what is
normally taken into account
when putting together
compensation and benefit
packages?
Announcement
of current open
vacancies
Knowledge of how to access centers of
knowledge (LM) (CB) (P)
What are some of the
strategies adopted to stay in
contact and access key centers
of knowledge?
President’s
travel schedule,
Provost travel
schedule,
current
cooperation
agreements and
strategic
partnerships
Knowledge of how to develop and
implement policies that integrate
international faculty (CS) (CB) (P)
Can you describe how policies
are developed or adjusted to
promote the integration of
international faculty?
Policy
documents
and relocation
support
services, rules,
and policies
Metacognitive

Knowledge of how strategies to recruit
international faculty are developed and
adjusted (LM) (M)

Please tell me about the
process of coming up with a
strategy to recruit international
faculty.
N/A
Knowledge of how market intelligence is
obtained and applied (LM) (M)
Please describe the process
you go through and the
strategies adopted to gather
intelligence pertaining to
N/A
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competition for international
hires.
Abbreviations: (F)Factual Knowledge; (C)Conceptual Knowledge; (P)Procedural Knowledge;
(M)Metacognitive Knowledge; (CS) Context-Specific Literature; (LM) Learning and Motivation
Theory; (CB) Critical Behavior

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APPENDIX E

Summary of Assumed Motivation Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to Achieve the
Performance Goal
Assumed Motivation Assets Interview Document Analysis
Expectancy-Value

Administrators value relationships
that grant access to centers of
knowledge (CS)(CB)
How valuable is it for you to
develop and nurture
relationships internationally?
Existing MoUs with
foreign universities
Administrators expect that
attractive compensation and
benefit packages work (CS)(CB)
Could you discuss how
important it is to offer
competitive compensation and
benefit packages?
Publicly announced
positions
Administrators value adopting
policies to integrate international
faculty in school life and the
larger society (CS)(CB)
How valuable is it for you to
have policies that integrate
international faculty with the
university and the larger outside
society
Current policies and
relocation services
available
Administrators value the
contributions international faculty
can make to boosting research
(CS)
How valuable is it for you to
have international faculty?
Research and citation
statistics
Administrators value the impact
international faculty have in
reputation and rankings (CS)
How valuable do you think
international faculty if for
improving reputation and
rankings.
Analyze ranking
performance and how
ranking is used in
publicity materials
Administrators value academic
freedom and independence as
important conditions to attract
international faculty (CS)
How valuable is it for you to
promote and environment of
academic freedom and
independence?
N/A
Administrators believe that
faculty internationalization is
strategic for the university to meet
its mission goals (CS)
How hard would it be for the
university to meets its mission
goal if it wasn’t able to attract
international faculty?
Annual reports and
multiyear strategic
plans
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Self-Efficacy

Administrators are able to adopt
policies to integrate international
faculty in school life and the
larger society (CS)(CB)
How confident are you in
adopting policies that integrate
international faculty inside and
outside the university?
Hiring and relocation
policy documents
Administrators are able to
structure attractive compensation
and benefit packages (CS)(CB)
How confident are you to create
compensation packages and
benefits?
Publicly announced
positions
Abbreviations: (F)Factual Knowledge; (C)Conceptual Knowledge; (P)Procedural Knowledge;
(M)Metacognitive Knowledge; (CS) Context-Specific Literature; (LM) Learning and Motivation
Theory; (CB) Critical Behavior

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APPENDIX F

Summary of Assumed Organization Influences on Stakeholder’s Ability to Achieve the
Performance Goal
Assumed Organization Assets Interview Document review
Resources

Administrators have access to
resources that allow them to foster
relationships with key centers of
knowledge (CS)(CB)
What resources are available to
you to develop and maintain
relationships with counterparts in
key centers of knowledge
Travel policies and
budget allocation
Administrators have financial
resources allocated to create
attractive compensation and
benefit packages (CS)(CB)
What importance is given to your
capacity to stay competitive as far
as compensation and benefits is
concerned when planning your
budget?
Budget allocation
Administrators have academic and
administrative autonomy to make
decisions (CS)(CB)
Can you describe how
administrative and academic
autonomy is best seen or
experienced?

Administrators support
investments in laboratory and
research infrastructure (CS)
In terms of infrastructure of
laboratories and research
facilities, how do you compare
with other top schools?
Investment
decision made

Current list of
research centers

Volume of
publications and
citations

Cultural Setting and Models

Administrators support policies
that are aligned with the goal of
integrating international faculty in
school life and the larger society
(CS)(CB)
What are the policies in place that
support faculty integration with
the school and society
Policy documents
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Administrators have leadership
role models of actively pursuing
connections with key centers of
knowledge (CS)(CB)(M)
In what ways do you think the
leadership of the university reflect
its goal to be globally connected?
Current and past
appointments of
key leadership
roles
Administrators provide both local
and international faculty equal
opportunity for career
advancement and tenure (CS)
Are there differences in the way
international versus local faculty
can pursue a career here?

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169
APPENDIX G

University of Southern California
Information Sheet for Research

Faculty Internationalization at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
(HKUST): A Promising Practice Study

You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Paulo Rodrigues at the University
of Southern California. Please read through this form and ask any questions you might have before
deciding whether or not you want to participate.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This research study aims to understand HKUST’s performance related to the larger problem of
practice of faculty internationalization. The analysis will focus on HKUST administrators’ assets
in the areas of knowledge and skill, motivation, and organizational resources. The study will also
look into how internationally mobile faculty respond to economic, noneconomic and academic
push-pull factors.

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to participate in a semi-structured, in-
depth interview of about one hour. The interview will be audio-recorded for later verbatim
transcription and analysis. You do not have to answer any questions you don’t want to.

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
Participation is optional, there will be no payment or compensation for participating.

CONFIDENTIALITY
If data are anonymous:
There will be no identifiable information obtained in connection with this study. At the completion
of the study, the anonymous data may be used for future research studies. If you do not want your
data used in future studies, you should not participate.

If data are coded or identifiable:
Any identifiable information obtained in connection with this study will remain confidential. At
the completion of the study, direct identifiers will be destroyed and the de-identified data may be
used for future research studies. If you do not want your data used in future studies, you should
not participate.

Required language for either condition:
The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects
Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data. The HSPP reviews and monitors research studies
to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact Paulo
Rodrigues at paulor@usc.edu.
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170
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about your rights as a research participant or the
research in general and are unable to contact the research team, or if you want to talk to someone
independent of the research team, please contact the University Park Institutional Review Board
(UPIRB), 3720 South Flower Street #301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or
upirb@usc.edu.

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171
APPENDIX H
Sample Communication E-mail

Dear Sir or Madam:

This is Paulo Rodrigues from the University of Southern California. I am conducting a research
on HKUST’s performance in the area faculty internationalization. Since the case study aims to
analyze HKUST administrators’ assets in the areas of knowledge and skill, motivation, and
organizational resources, your name was referred to me by Dr. (since I am working with
purposeful sampling, the idea is that a high-level administrator will provide names of key people
to interview). If possible, I would like to set up time with you for an interview.

The 10-question interview is expected to last about one hour and will be audio-recorded for later
verbatim transcription and analysis. You do not have to answer any questions you don’t want to.

I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you.

Cordially,

Paulo Rodrigues
Global Executive EdD Candidate
paulor@usc.edu
+1-323-440-9793

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172
APPENDIX I
Sample Communication E-mail

Dear Sir or Madam:

This is Paulo Rodrigues from the University of Southern California. I am conducting a research
on HKUST’s performance in the area faculty internationalization. Since one of the objectives of
the case study is to analyze how international faculty respond to economic, noneconomic and
academic push-pull factors, your name was referred to me by Dr. (since I am working with
purposeful sampling, the idea is that a high-level administrator will provide names of key people
to interview). If possible, I would like to set up time with you for an interview.

The 16-item interview is expected to last about one hour and will be audio-recorded for later
verbatim transcription and analysis. You do not have to answer any questions you don’t want to.

I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you.

Cordially,

Paulo Rodrigues
Global Executive EdD Candidate
paulor@usc.edu
+1-323-440-9793

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The purpose of this case study was to explore a promising practice, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), to better understand gaps in faculty internationalization in higher education. More specifically, the dissertation looked at how HEIs can be more successful in attracting, hiring, and retaining international faculty. A qualitative approach of interviews and document analysis was utilized, and the conceptual framework was the Clark and Estes (2008) gap analysis. A total of eleven participants were interviewed, including administrators and faculty, and four major documents were reviewed. Findings validated 17 of 22 assumed assets and discovered four contextual assets. Key assets and potentially transferable practices based on the promising practice include a continuous focus on quality and diversity, the implementation of strategies to recruit faculty globally, the review and implementation of competitive compensation and benefits, and the development of policies to support and integrate international faculty and their families. An implementation, including action steps and timeline, and an evaluation plan for each of the recommendations, provide a basic roadmap for the development of a faculty internationalization strategy.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Rodrigues, Paulo (author)

Core Title Faculty internationalization at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST): a promising practice study

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Publication Date 06/21/2019

Defense Date 05/22/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag brain circulation,brain drain,brain gain,comprehensive internationalization,faculty,faculty in higher education,faculty internationalization,Globalization,Higher education,hiring,HKUST,Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,internationalization,OAI-PMH Harvest,retention

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tambascia, Tracy Poon (committee chair), Chung, Rugh H. (committee member), Filback, Robert A. (committee member)

Creator Email paulor@usc.edu,rodripa@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-178192

Unique identifier UC11660983

Identifier etd-RodriguesP-7509.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-178192 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-RodriguesP-7509.pdf

Dmrecord 178192

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Rodrigues, Paulo

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA