El Sistema Nacional de Investigadores en 2009 : un vector para la internacionalización de las élites científicas ?

In this paper the authors expect to analyze the following hypothesis from different angles: the National Researchers System (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, SNI) has created a standardization, progressive although incomplete, of the criteria governing the national scientific elite based on the criteria that prevail amongst the so-called developed countries. We study some of the indicators following which the SNI members who belong to the most aged groups present obvious differences with regard to the less aged ones and are a symptom of this homogenization dynamics, like, for instance, the age at which the doctorate degree is obtained. We also analyze the distortions that characterize this universe, like v.g. the fact that women are under-represented. A systematic analysis of the 2009 data about the SNI researchers, together with a sample of academic trajectories taken from the CVU (Joint Curriculum Vitae, Curriculum vitae único) helps us to show at what extent obtaining a degree in a foreign country helps to achieve a rapid career progression within the system, emphasizing the slants by disciplinary area and additional factors that allow to explain how they can get a high scientific prestige capital

Bureaucracy and Internationalization in Higher Education in Mexico: Fatal impacts

This paper analyses to what extent mechanisms of quality control and results-based financing hinder innovative programmes. Focusing on one precise example, the paper will demonstrate how bureaucratic schemes that prioritise the production of evidence of compliance force higher education institution (HEIs) to adapt their internationalization programmes to government policy requirements as a matter of routine, and to pay less attention to meaningful activities such as knowledge production and the development of networks. Because of the conditions of its implementation, internationalization has become merely instrumental and limited in scope, which weakens its sustainability. The question of how to internationalize such that programmes of mobility, exchange, joint research, networks, and collaborative degrees incentivize projects of institutional development, innovation, and social responsibility, has become a secondary concern

Movilidad de científicos franceses a México

Analisamos os perfis da migração de cientistas estrangeiros contratados de forma fixa pelas instituições de educação superior mexicana, suas condições de profissionalização e suas redes, como ferramentas para situar-se em um âmbito de investigação científica, ao mesmo tempo altamente internacionalizado e profundamente arraigado em contextos locais e institucionais. As hipóteses centrais são : a) A migração influencia de forma duradoura na trajetória dos pesquisadores ; b) A escala sistêmica, no México, é uma estratégia de consolidação das capacidades instaladas da indagação e pós-graduação ; c) É uma aposta dos grupos científicos para melhorar alguns indicadores de qualidade e suportar os problemas acarreados pelo baixo nível de rotação e o envelhecimento do corpo científico.We analyze the profiles of foreign scientists granted with definitive posts by Mexican higher education institutions, the conditions relating to their professionalization and their networks as tools for situating themselves in a scientific research context that is both highly internationalized and profoundly rooted in local and institutional contexts. The central hypotheses are : a) Migration has a lasting influence on researchers’ career paths ; b) On a system-wide scale, in Mexico, it is a strategy for consolidation of installed research capacities and, c) It is a bid by scientific groups to improve some quality indicators and overcome the problems entailed in the low level of turnover and ageing science staff.Analizamos los perfiles de migración de los científicos extranjeros contratados en forma definitiva por instituciones de educación superior mexicanas, sus condiciones de profesionalización y sus redes, en tanto herramientas para situarse en un ámbito de investigación científica, a la par altamente internacionalizado y profundamente arraigado en contextos locales e institucionales. Las hipótesis centrales son : a) La migración influye durablemente la trayectoria de los investigadores ; b) A escala sistémica, en México, es una estrategia de consolidación de las capacidades instaladas de indagación y posgrado ; c) Es una apuesta de los grupos científicos para mejorar algunos indicadores de calidad y sobrellevar los problemas acarreados por el bajo nivel de rotación y el envejecimiento de la plantilla científica

Toward a socio-economics of the brain drain and distributed human capital

[EN] This paper derives from our joint interest in understanding how scientific mobility affects developing countries. Many authors have addressed the topic previously, both from an economic and from a sociological perspective. However, recent literature evinces dissatisfaction with both analytical frameworks and the framing of public policies addressing the brain drain problematic. This paper is a contribution to understanding the historical and theoretical foundations of the “brain drain” debate. We aim to improve conceptual clarity regarding the itinerancy of human beings and the mobilization of human capital. We develop a critical review of the economics of the brain drain, highlighting the work of some key early thinkers and pointing out the way in which subsequent work has taken up selected aspects of their approaches leaving other challenges aside. We then consider the diaspora networks literature, which is characterized as taking a “connectionist” approach to the brain drain. We identify two fundamental problems: the sidelining of complementarity and context dependency as basic properties of human capital; and a failure to adequately disentangle the concepts of human resources for science and technology (HRST) and human capital in academic and policy discourse about the brain drain.Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the International Workshop “Mobility, Science and Culture” (Braga, February 2010), the 8th GLOBELICS International Conference (Kuala Lumpur, November 2010) and the Macquarie University Skilled Labour and Migration Group (Sydney, November 2010). The authors would like to thank the colleagues and discussants that provided feedback in these fora. In particular, they are grateful to Claudia de Fuentes and to Jordi Molas for their careful reading of the draft and their useful comments. The authors were grateful recipients of funding from the International Science Linkages Program of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Research, which directly supported this work.Cañibano Sánchez, C.; Woolley, RD. (2015). Toward a socio-economics of the brain drain and distributed human capital. International Migration. 53(1):115-130. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12020S11513053

Educación superior, afianzamiento de la identidad indígena y compromisos étnicos en México

El artículo pretende reflexionar sobre los mecanismos utilizados por las instituciones de educación superior interculturales (IESI) y los pro- gramas de educación superior de base étnica, insertos en universidades con- vencionales, para auspiciar el afianzamiento tanto de la identidad étnica como de un sentido de responsabilidad social hacia su grupo de origen entre los estudiantes indígenas. La hipótesis principal es que las posibilidades de al- canzar esos propósitos son limitadas: aun cuando instituciones y programas operen prácticas vinculadas con su consecución, su efectividad depende de la combinación de factores individuales y colectivos que escapan a sus ámbitos de competencia. Para argumentarla, trazamos un panorama de las ofertas de educación superior dirigidas al sector. Mediante entrevistas, analizamos cómo profesionistas indígenas y responsables de programa valoran las estrategias ins- titucionales avocadas específicamente a ambas finalidades y cómo problema- tizan las nociones de “identidad étnica” y “compromiso” con la comunidad o grupo de origen