Unsettling Experiences: Factors That Discourage International Students From Desiring Research and Teaching Careers

It is estimated that one-third of students completing their doctoral study in the United States are international. This is notable because the higher education socialization processes for international students are uniquely challenging, yet little scholarship has addressed how these challenges influence doctoral students’ pursuits of faculty careers. Employing multi-institutional data from the U.S. research-intensive universities, this study examined how interpersonal socialization difficulties (based in linguistic challenges, cultural differences, and identity-based bias/discrimination) with peers, faculty, and staff were associated with declined interest in pursuing faculty positions at research-oriented universities and teaching-oriented universities. The results indicated that international doctoral students who experienced interpersonal challenges due to cultural conflicts were more likely to lose interest in faculty positions. U.S. higher education is recommended to help both international doctoral students and people around them to minimize communication difficulties of cultural differences to retain international talents who can be future international faculty.