Working Paper #2016-006
On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects
This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD
training for scientists working in an emerging economy, South Africa.
Variations in scientific achievements of South African academics may
arise because those who attend "better" PhD programmes receive better
training, but it may also be because good students select into good
universities. We examine selection and training effects for four tiers
of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. Those who
received PhDs from universities in industrialized countries tend to be
more productive than those whose PhDs were locally granted, but
universities from industrialized countries do not necessarily provide
better training than local universities. Pure selection effects
contribute to career outcomes nearly as much as training effects. When
looking at training in isolation, PhDs from top South African
universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to
those from leading universities in the developed world.
- Keywords
-
- Scientific mobility
- Doctoral studies
- University evaluation
- Developing country
- South Africa
- Technological upgrading
- JEL codes
-
- F63
- H52
- I2
- O15
- O20
- O30
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Barnard, H., Cowan, R., & Müller, M. (2016). On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2016-006). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=5934