Research on the Effectiveness and Promotion Strategy of Overseas Returnees in Colleges and Universities under the Background of “Double First-Class” Construction ()
1. Introduction
“Double first-class” is the abbreviation of world-class universities and first-class discipline construction. With the construction of “double first-class”, colleges and universities have stepped up efforts to introduce overseas returnees. In order to adapt to the competition situation of overseas returnees, most colleges and universities have set up an annual salary system with flexibility, strong individuality and high salary level for overseas returnees. On the other hand, they have evaluated the academic ability of overseas returnees by quantitative means, which has led to the overseas returnees’ pursuit of scientific research results changing from quality to quantity. In order to pass the evaluation of high-paying contracts, some returnees in colleges and universities do not hesitate to plagiarize and copy other people’s academic achievements in violation of academic ethics and norms, resulting in a large amount of academic rubbish, which makes the total number of SCI papers in China rank among the top in the world, but the single citation level of papers is not high.
In today’s world-class universities and the construction of first-class disciplines, colleges and universities have invested a lot of money to introduce overseas returnees. How to complete the transformation from “salary” to “heart” to establish and improve a good academic ecology for overseas returnees teachers in colleges and universities based on scientific research integrity? Secondly, a good academic ecology is the cornerstone of academic development. If a good academic ecological circle is formed, the returned teachers in colleges and universities can become the source and inexhaustible motive force of academic innovation and development. At the same time, the original scientific research achievements and academic background of overseas returnees in colleges and universities bring positive spillover effects to academic innovation of university teachers’ team ( Yu & Fan, 2017 ). What factors can affect academic innovation of individual and team returnees in colleges and universities?
Therefore, this paper makes an in-depth discussion on the effectiveness of overseas returnees in colleges and universities under the background of “double-class” construction. The research results will enhance the effectiveness of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, help colleges and universities to establish a good academic ecosystem, and promote the academic achievement innovation and team innovation ability of overseas returnees teachers in colleges and universities, which has profound practical significance.
2. Data
In order to deeply analyze the knowledge structure and hot issues related to the introduction of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, this paper selects overseas returnees and talent introduction in colleges and universities as two retrieval items to collect the literature data. The literature data samples are from CNKI General Library of China Academic Journals, and the data are analyzed by literature metrology tools such as Citespace and CNKI visualization software.
In this paper, all the documents collected in China Academic Journal Publishing General Library are selected, and repeated word truncation is used. First, the keyword “theme = returnees from colleges and universities” is used to search the documents and materials of all ages, and it is found that 419 retrieval results are obtained. In order to focus on the research data accurately, 89 retrieval results are obtained by searching the documents and materials with the keyword “theme = talent introduction”.
By sorting out the search results, deleting irrelevant information materials such as papers soliciting for papers in periodical conferences, introductory remarks, introduction of personal academic achievements, comments on manuscripts, journal introductions, etc., and screening literature materials related to the introduction of overseas Chinese talents in colleges and universities, 47 research documents were finally obtained, covering the period from 2008 to 2022.
The total number of references cited in these 47 documents is 1928, the total number of cited documents is 261, and the total number of downloaded documents is 26,310. The average number of references cited in each document was 41.02, the average number of references cited was 5.55, the average number of downloads was 559.79, and the cited rate of downloads was 0.01%.
3. Quantitative Analysis of Atlas
1) Quantity and time analysis of documents issued
As shown in Figure 1, the graph line represents the annual trend of papers published in the field of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, in which the red line represents selected documents, the dark blue line represents references and the light blue line represents cited documents. The published annual trend of papers refers to the research situation in the field of overseas returnees in colleges and universities from 2008 to 2022, with a total of 47 documents.
As can be seen from Figure 1, the number of published papers is on the rise as a whole, and the number of published papers is small from 2008 to 2016. This paper mainly analyzes two major themes: the introduction policy and the introduction risk of overseas returnees in colleges and universities. During the period of 2017-2019, references and citations continued to rise. This paper discussed in depth the effectiveness evaluation, incentive mechanism, differences between returnees and local talents, and satisfaction evaluation of talent introduction.
After 2020, the number of papers published dropped from the peak to the
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Figure 1. Distribution of the number and time of papers on the introduction of overseas returnees in colleges and universities from 2008 to 2022.
trough, but the number of cited documents gradually reached the peak, indicating that most scholars’ research angles and data sources have changed, for example, paying attention to the research on the demand analysis, talent introduction mode, talent introduction effect investigation and talent introduction countermeasures of college returnees, which indicates that the research on talent introduction of college returnees has gradually become a hot topic of discussion.
2) Keyword analysis
The core ideas of each academic paper are expressed by keywords, which cover the important content of the theme of the paper. Therefore, the analysis of keywords in related literature in a certain field can quickly dig out the research ideas and contents in this field. In this paper, the time span is set from 2008 to 2022 by importing all literature data into the software. The length of a single time partition is 1a; Select the source of cluster words as title, abstract, author keywords and supplementary keywords plus. The cluster type is selected as Burst Plus; the node type is keywords.
Since there are 47 documents and data, the software extracts the highest value of the cited word frequency in each time zone and adjusts it to 25 keywords. Click the analyze button, and after cluster analysis by Citespace software, the keyword map is shown in Figure 2. The reliability (Q value) of data analysis in
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(海归人才: Returned talents, 高校人才引进: Talent introduction in colleges and universities, 文化适应: Cultural adaptation, 海归教师: Returned teachers, 留学人员: Overseas students).
Figure 2. Structure chart of key words in the research field of overseas returnees in colleges and universities from 2008 to 2022.
the upper left corner is 0.7642, the structure value (S value) is 0.893, and both Q value and S value are above 0.5, which indicates that the analysis results are valid.
3) Review of studies
The above-mentioned two research hotspots of overseas returnees in colleges and universities are obtained through bibliometric software. In order to give full play to the effectiveness of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, on the one hand, some scholars have conducted in-depth research from the perspectives of the implementation effect evaluation of overseas returnees in colleges and universities ( Guo & Lu, 2019 ) and the analysis of high-level talents in colleges and universities ( Guo & Wang, 2017 ), and think that the introduction measures of overseas returnees in colleges and universities tend to quantify personal performance too much.
On the other hand, from the perspective of academic ecology, scholars discussed the optimization path of academic ecological environment in colleges and universities ( Xiang, 2014 ), the academic ecological smog and its governance ( Li, 2016 ), and the ecological logic of academic governance in colleges and universities ( Wang & Song, 2018 ), and put forward some academic ecological governance methods such as improving the evaluation standards of scientific research and strengthening academic moral cultivation.
However, there are few domestic scholars’ researches on the academic innovation of individual and team returnees in colleges and universities, mainly focusing on the influencing factors of the development of returnees in colleges and universities ( Ding, 2022 ) and the job satisfaction of returnees in colleges and universities during their first employment period ( Li & Zhu, 2020 ).
Although the existing studies have analyzed the application effect, academic ecological construction, adaptability of overseas returnees, etc., these studies are mostly at the policy level, without in-depth analysis of the problems of insufficient effectiveness of overseas returnees and improvement strategies. However, under the background of “double-first-class” construction, one of the purposes of introducing returnees to colleges and universities is to aim at connecting with international first-class universities and create a good academic ecological environment for them; Stimulate individual academic achievement innovation and team academic innovation ability, and promote the development of school discipline construction. Without the first-class academic ecology, it is difficult to achieve the normalized first-class achievements, and it is difficult to give full play to the academic innovation ability of college returnees.
Therefore, based on the shortcomings of previous studies, with the help of relevant theoretical models, it is proposed to construct a theoretical analysis framework of talent introduction effect and conduct in-depth academic research, which has far-reaching academic value for colleges and universities to establish correct employment orientation, encourage and guide the career development of returnees and mobilize their academic innovation enthusiasm.
4. Theoretical Analysis Framework of the Effect of Overseas Returnees in Colleges and Universities
According to the spirit of relevant national documents, in order to solve the problem of “one size fits all” in the introduction of returnees in colleges and universities. Colleges and universities should give full play to the high-quality resources of returnees, intensify the introduction of returnees, establish an effectiveness system for the introduction of returnees oriented by innovation ability, quality and contribution, and complete the transformation from “salary” to “heart” to let them quickly adapt to the domestic academic environment and urge them to do scientific research honestly and practically.
At the same time, colleges and universities should focus on developing the academic potential and innovation ability of returnees, and encourage them to use foreign original scientific research achievements and academic background to enhance their individual innovation ability. They inspire international academic contacts and network relationships, form an academic interaction process of knowledge sharing, promote the scientific research and innovation behavior of the returned teachers in colleges and universities, strive to produce first-class academic achievements, and contribute to the “double first-class” construction of colleges and universities.
1) Frame analysis
The theoretical analysis framework of the effectiveness of overseas returnees in colleges and universities is mainly divided into three parts: academic ecology research of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, academic innovation research of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, and promotion strategy research of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, as shown in Figure 3. Conclusion The research will provide theoretical guidance for improving the effectiveness of overseas returnees in colleges and universities.
Among them, in the research of academic ecology of returned college teachers,
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Figure 3. Theoretical analysis framework of the effect of overseas returnees in colleges and universities.
this paper, based on the academic ecosystem composed of academic subjects, academic objects and academic environment ( Li, 2016 ), uses Bandura’s ternary interaction theory model to deeply analyze the relationship among returned college teachers, academic behavior and academic environment, explore which academic environment factors can influence and restrict each other, and establish and improve a good academic ecosystem of returned college teachers based on scientific research integrity.
As for the academic innovation research of college returnees, the academic mode of single-handedly fighting in colleges and universities has been replaced by the team research mode ( Pan, 2016 ), and the good academic ecosystem of college returnees will guide them to improve their academic innovation ability and that of the team. In this paper, McGrath’s theoretical model of team effectiveness is used to deeply analyze the input, process and output of university returnees’ team research innovation, the interactive process of university returnees’ team knowledge sharing, and the problems of how university returnees’ personal innovation can affect the team teachers’ innovation ability.
As for the research on the promotion strategy of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, based on the research conclusions of academic ecology of overseas returnees in colleges and universities and academic innovation of overseas returnees in colleges and universities, this paper will get the similarities of the research conclusions of both, and put forward the improvement strategies.
2) Research on Academic Ecology of Returned Teachers in Colleges and Universities
Ecology refers to the academic system which is interrelated, influenced and restricted by academic subjects, academic objects and academic environment ( Li, 2016 ). In this paper, overseas teachers (OT) are selected as academic subjects, academic behavior (AB) as academic objects, and academic environment (AE). By using Bandura’s ternary interaction theory model, a ternary interaction model of academic ecology of overseas teachers in colleges and universities is constructed, as shown in Figure 4.
In order to measure the reciprocal relationship among the three elements, the
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Figure 4. Three-dimensional interactive model of academic ecology of returnees in colleges and universities.
model reflects the material factors (scientific research conditions, scientific research equipment, etc.), institutional factors (academic system, academic evaluation system, etc.), and spiritual factors (social humanities, social culture, etc.) of the academic environment, which will give the returned teachers in colleges and universities positive work pressure (such as anxiety rather than depression). Positive work pressure may reduce the academic behavior effect (such as difficulty in issuing papers), and inefficient academic behavior will close down and improve the academic environment. In a word, this paper deeply discusses which academic environment factors will promote efficient academic behavior (such as original papers and practical results), improve the work efficiency of college returnees teachers, relieve their work pressure, and finally form a good academic ecosystem.
3) Research on Academic Innovation of Returned Teachers in Colleges and Universities
Scientific research in colleges and universities can no longer produce outstanding results alone. Only scientific research teams can produce first-class scientific research results. Returned teachers in colleges and universities will improve their academic innovation ability and that of their teams through scientific research teams. In this paper, McGrath’s theoretical model of team effectiveness is used to construct an “input-process-output” (IPO) IPO model of academic innovation of college returnees teachers, as shown in Figure 5.
In the model, Input refers to the causal relationship between individual innovation factors ( Luo et al., 2017 ), team factors ( Yu & Fan, 2017 ), environmental factors ( Liu, 2010 ) and the corresponding secondary index variables (return
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Figure 5. IPO model of academic innovation of returnees in colleges and universities.
adaptation, salary level, scientific research ability, scientific research reward degree; Team cohesion, team personnel characteristics and team scientific research level; Team pressure, team cooperation system, team assessment standard). Process refers to the interaction of knowledge among individual innovation factors, team factors and environmental factors of college returnees teachers through the interaction of team knowledge sharing. Output refers to the scientific research and innovation output ( Wei, 2017 ) and other academic innovation output of the university returnee teacher team.
In a word, the individual innovation factors, team factors and environmental factors of college returnees teachers in the model input link directly affect the interactive process of team knowledge sharing, and indirectly affect the output of team scientific research innovation, etc. This paper makes an in-depth analysis of the factors that influence the academic innovation of individual and team returnees in colleges and universities.
5. Promotion Strategies for the Introduction of Returned Talents in Colleges and Universities
Firstly, this paper deeply analyzes the relationship between the academic ecology of college returnees and their academic innovation. Based on their research conclusions, we get their common factors, and get some key factors to improve the effectiveness of the introduction of college returnees, as shown in Figure 6. Secondly, in view of the shortcomings of the existing overseas talent introduction in colleges and universities, combined with common factors, this paper puts forward several strategies to promote the effectiveness of overseas talent introduction in colleges and universities, and makes contributions to the construction of “double-first-class” universities and disciplines and the construction of university think tanks in China.
6. Summary
In recent years, in order to build world-class universities and first-class disciplines, major universities have continuously invested a large amount of money to introduce overseas returnees. How to complete the transformation from “salary” to “heart”, establish and improve a good academic ecology for overseas returnees teachers in universities based on scientific research integrity? At the same time, how can the original scientific research achievements and academic background
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Figure 6. Relationship between academic ecology and academic innovation of college returnees teachers.
of overseas returnees in colleges and universities influence the academic innovation of individual and team returnees in colleges and universities? It is helpful to improve the academic ability of university teachers.
Based on this, this paper makes an in-depth discussion on the effectiveness of the introduction of overseas Chinese talents in colleges and universities under the background of “double-first-class” construction, and constructs a theoretical analysis framework with the help of Bandura’s ternary interaction theory model and McGrath’s team effectiveness theory model.
First of all, according to Bandura’s ternary reciprocal determinism, combined with the three elements of academic ecosystem, the academic ecological analysis model of college returnees teachers is established, which will get the relevant factors to relieve their work pressure.
Secondly, combined with McGrath’s theoretical model of team effectiveness, a theoretical model of academic innovation of returned teachers in colleges and universities was established, and a series of related theoretical hypotheses were put forward. The hypothesis conditions were verified by subjective and objective data, and the influencing factors that promoted individual academic innovation and team scientific research innovation output were obtained.
Finally, in view of the shortcomings of the existing overseas talent introduction in colleges and universities, combined with the common factors of the former two studies, this paper puts forward several strategies to promote the effectiveness of overseas talent introduction in colleges and universities.
Funding
This paper is a special project of Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program (BJJWZYJH01201910034034); supported by the 111 Project (B20094); the Program for First-class Discipline Construction in Central University of Finance and Economics; the Beijing Program for “Double First-Class” Construction Project of Central Universities.
NOTES
*Corresponding author.