A study that was just accepted for publication by Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS) Journal takes a look at geographic hiring patterns among GIScience faculty. Titled “Where are GIScience Faculty Hired from? Analyzing Faculty Mobility and Research Themes Through Hiring Networks” the examines where GIS faculty come from, how they move across the globe, and how academic networks in GIScience are formed through mobility and recruitment. The analysis was conducted by a research team led by Prof. Yuhao Kang at the University of Texas at Austin and Yanbing Chen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
GISphere Project data
The study is based on a database compiled by the GISphere Project—containing summary information on more than 400 GIS programs and nearly 1,000 GIS faculty from over 380 universities worldwide. Data was collected from departmental websites, academic profiles (such as ORCID and LinkedIn), and other public sources. The analysis for this study focused on tenure-track faculty to capture those actively involved in mentoring and research.
Where GIS faculty are educated influences their placement
The study found two strong geographic patterns:
- A handful of global institutions led in terms of overall placements.
Wuhan University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, and Ohio State University accounted for 15.43% of global faculty placements.
- There is a strong regional bias in placements.
The study found that many faculty members are hired by institutions within the same region where they earned their PhD, emphasizing strong local recruitment networks. Regional clustering is especially prominent in North America and Europe, where hiring practices typically favor domestic or nearby graduates.
This study builds on previous work by the authors presented at Spatial Knowledge and Information Canada 2023: Investigating Demographics and Mobility through Faculty Hiring Network in GIScience
Fonte : National Geographic
