Scholarship reconsidered in an era of entrepreneurialism : academic professions in Hong Kong and South Korea

Abstract

Since the rise of neoliberalism in late twentieth century, higher education around the globe has been undergoing substantial transformations. The literature of academic entrepreneurialism developed in breadth and profound proliferation. Yet, how the pattern and logic of academic entrepreneurialism manifests itself in the scholarship of application has not been sufficiently studied with a large international data set. Using the cases of Hong Kong and South Korea, this thesis examines the relationship between academics’ engagement in scholarship of application, namely (1) practically oriented teaching, (2) applied research and (3) service outside academy, and their academic and demographic backgrounds. Underneath the rationale of this thesis is that about a quarter of the professoriate in both Hong Kong and South Korea received doctoral education in the United States.

This research draws data from the database of “A Changing Academic Profession: The Second International Survey of the Academic Profession”. Over the two-year survey period from 2007 to 2008, a total of 6291 scholars across different institutions, departments and academic ranks in Hong Kong were included in the sampling process – and 811 questionnaires were returned. As for South Korea, 13953 academic staff were randomly sampled (with afterward cross-checking the sample representativeness by academic disciplines, institutional types, academic ranks and gender) and a total of 900 academics were surveyed. Robust inferential statistics are conducted between the various measures of applied scholarship and the potential determinants, such as the academics’ origin of doctoral education, current citizenship, disciplinary affiliation, and institutional affiliation.

Results of this thesis show that: (1) American doctorate holders engage significantly less than non-American doctorate holders in practically oriented teaching and applied research in Hong Kong, but not in South Korea. Doctoral education does not appear to be a determinant of engagement in service outside academy in both Hong Kong and South Korea (2) Hong Kong citizen scholars engage significantly more than non-Hong Kong citizen scholars in applied research and service outside academy. In South Korea, citizenship is not associated with engagement in the three key aspects of applied scholarship (3) In Hong Kong, disciplinary affiliation is not a factor that predicts engagement in applied scholarship. But in South Korea, academics from hard disciplines are more engaged than academics from soft disciplines in practically oriented teaching and applied research, although there is no association between service outside academy and disciplinary affiliation (4) In Hong Kong and South Korea, academics from research-intensive institutions engage significantly less than their colleagues from non-research-intensive institutions in practically oriented teaching. Institutional affiliation is a significant factor that affects involvement in applied research in Hong Kong but not in South Korea. Service outside academy is related to institutional affiliation in South Korea, but not in Hong Kong

Based on these data analyses, this thesis implies that internationalism and knowledge entrepreneurialism are the two parallel but possibly conflicting directions of university development. The two trends may induce tensions between local concerns and global vision among academic communities - and may also stratify the academic profession.