Trends in Determinants of Entry into the Academic Career: The Case of South Korea, 1980-2010

Substantial research documents the determinants of entry into the academic career, yet little is known about how these determinants have evolved over time. Using data from a large sample of Korean scholars who received their doctoral degrees between 1980 and 2010, we estimate discrete-time event history models of transitioning to an academic position in any academic field. Results indicate that universalistic characteristics, such as publication record, strongly affect subsequent career success, but so do particularistic factors, including doctoral institution prestige. Since the 1980s, the influence of doctoral degree prestige increased substantially more than the influence of one’s publication record on higher education employment, implying that the rising importance of particularistic factors has outpaced growing consideration of universalistic characteristics in Korean academia. However, the importance of gender on academic employment has declined since the early 2000s, suggesting that the implementation of employment quotas for female professors may have stymied gender discrimination.