Faculty research productivity: differences between foreign and local doctoral degree holders in Pakistan

The presence of foreign doctoral degree holders has significantly been increasing in Pakistani public universities. Despite their increasing presence and significance in universities, they have been ignored in higher education literature, notably the absence of empirical studies exploring their research productivity. This study aimed to explore research productivity differences between foreign and local doctoral degree holders and determine the factors (demographic, individual, and institutional) that contribute to their research productivity. Data were collected from 14 Pakistani public universities through a self-administered questionnaire using a systematic random sampling method. A total of 241 questionnaires were returned, among which 232 well-filled and completed questionnaires (foreign (119) and local (113), respectively) were used for analysis. The findings showed that foreign doctoral degree holders were not more productive in terms of total refereed journal articles and book chapters than local doctoral degree holders. However, foreign doctoral degree holders had published statistically significant research articles in international journals with impact factors and published more research articles with international colleagues than their local doctoral counterparts. Moreover, the findings showed that unlike the institutional factors, demographic and individual factors had significantly contributed to faculty research productivity in Pakistani public universities. Further implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are outlined.