Battle for the brightest

Competition among domestic universities to attract talented young faculty members is heating up

The "generosity" a prestigious university exhibited in a recent recruiting notice to attract prospective talented young employees has caught people's attention.

In the notice, the University of Science and Technology of China, located in Hefei, Anhui province, said top science and engineering talent was being sought for crucial teaching and research posts.

Those hired will receive a salary of at least 450,000 yuan ($65,000; 59,700 euros; ￡50,380), research funds ranging from 1 million to 3 million yuan, a living stipend of 500,000 yuan and a 160-square-meter apartment.

A recruiting presentation given by Chen Xinyuan, vice-president of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, on the sidelines of the Allied Social Sciences Associations annual meeting in Chicago in January, which attracted a lot of people interested in learning more about the opportunity to work at the university. Provided to China Daily

Applicants are expected to be below 40, have generated outstanding research results and have worked more than three years at a prominent higher education institution or research institute overseas.

The university is not alone in seeking young talent, though its offer is particularly generous. In recent years, an increasing number of universities in China have adopted such methods to lure young talent studying or working overseas.

Some, like the university in Hefei, post want ads with tempting incentives, while others send recruiting "task forces" overseas in the hope they will be able to sweet-talk talent into signing up.

Tian Guoqiang, director of the School of Economics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, says his university was one of the earliest among higher education institutions in China to start recruiting faculty members from overseas.

Since 2005, Tian has led a team to the United States each year to look for teaching and research staff. More than 100 teachers and researchers with PhDs have been sourced in this way over the past 13 years.

Liang Qi, director of the human resources division at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a leading domestic institution, says almost every visit made by the heads of the university and its schools to institutions overseas has involved recruiting presentations and interviews with talented young people.

And not long ago, the university published want ads in leading international periodicals, such as Science and Nature, for people who are dedicated to academic research.

National importance

In January, Tian and his colleagues flew to Chicago for the Allied Social Sciences Associations annual meeting, where thousands of the best minds in the social sciences gathered to present and celebrate new research achievements.

On the sidelines of the annual meeting, Tian's team interviewed 82 candidates who stood out from 261 applicants, many of whom graduated from the most prestigious universities in the US, including Princeton, Stanford and Columbia.

Twelve were eventually hired.

Tian says the importance of such talent cannot be overstated, not only for the development of a university and a particular discipline, but also the country.

The professor of economics says business education at domestic higher education institutions, for example, was brought back on track in the 1990s, when China set the goal of building up a market economy and joining the World Trade Organization.

But although almost all domestic colleges and universities have introduced majors related to business studies during the past two decades, there is still a short supply of internationally educated teachers who are able to lecture on courses that meet international criteria, which hinders domestic business schools from moving forward.

"Many institutions solve the problem by extending invitations to talented young Chinese studying or working abroad," Tian says.

Liang at Shanghai Jiao Tong University says recruiting talented staff is the "top priority among all priorities", since all the best universities in China, including his, are making great efforts to become world-class institutions.

More coming back

While domestic universities are constantly heading overseas to hunt for bright minds, an increasing number of talented young people are returning of their own volition.

Statistics from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security show that a total of 2.65 million Chinese have studied overseas since China's reform and opening-up in 1978, with more than 430,000 of them returning home last year alone.

With the stimulus and support of a series of national-level plans to attract top talent, such as the Recruitment Program of Global Experts launched in 2008 and the Young Overseas High-Level Talent Introduction Plan initiated in 2011, the number of people coming back with the title of professor between 2008 and 2016 was 20 times more than the total number who returned in the three decades between 1978 and 2008.

Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization, a think tank, has conducted research on talent-related topics for years.

In his eyes, many taleted Chinese choose to come back because of the great potential for both career and personal development being released by the rapid rise of China.

"New things are occurring in China all the time, creating a lot of opportunities and attracting attention from all over the world," he says, citing the recent announcement of the plan to develop the Xiongan New Area in Hebei province as an example.

After earning a PhD from the Netherlands' prestigious Tinbergen Institute and Erasmus University Rotterdam last year, Huang Zhenxing chose to join a university in his hometown of Shanghai, rather than a post at a university in the US or Australia.

The 32-year-old associate professor of economics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics believes that although China's economy has grown to be the world's second-largest, there is a lot to be improved in business research and education, and he anticipates career take-off and a brighter future.

Good conditions

In spite of the fact that more talented individuals are coming back, Tian says the competition among domestic institutions for high-end returning talent is becoming increasingly fierce.

"At the annual meeting in January, we encountered at least 40 domestic institutions that were also conducting job interviews there," he says. "You could not imagine such a situation a decade ago when the number was only a single digit."

He adds that many universities, particularly some with the financial support of the provincial government where they are located, offer very high, attractive salaries to overseas talent.

But he believes that a high salary is not the be-all and end-all for attracting talent.

"Rather, 'soft power' elements such as favorable working conditions, a comfortable living environment, as well as a clear self-development route are more important," he says.

From his decade-long recruiting experience overseas, Tian says the biggest concern among high-end talent when deciding whether to return and work in China is whether they will enjoy personal growth.

Wang of the Center for China and Globalization says it is always a big choice for high-end talent to relocate, particularly those who have lived and worked overseas for quite a long period of time.

"In that sense, domestic employers offering all-around support and services-internationally competitive salaries, academic freedom, career development, convenience in daily life, spouse's employment, children's education and so on-would be the most attractive."

zhouxinying@chinadaily.com.cn