LAUSR

ABSTRACT In today’s competitive international faculty job market, securing a full-time faculty position has been frustrating for doctoral graduates, including those in Taiwan. This study draws on interviews with 25 senior university administrators to explore how doctoral qualifications influence faculty hiring decisions. Four key findings emerged. First, although no explicit preference for foreign PhDs was expressed, administrators viewed them as carrying signalizing value for reliable quality training and competitive advantage in hiring practices, especially for candidates seeking positions at top-tier or well-resourced national universities. Second, preferences for foreign PhDs showed little association with the doctorate-granting institution’s prestige. The anticipated ‘prestige effect’ associated with top-ranked foreign universities was not observed. Third, administrators acknowledged the dilemma of academic inbreeding and expressed disapproval of appointing newly graduated PhD alumni as faculty due to potential negative impacts on the candidates’ career development and the institution’s health and competitiveness. This helps explain Taiwan’s relatively low rates of academic inbreeding compared to other systems. Fourth, senior administrators emphasized the strategic importance of doctoral qualifications in shaping early-career trajectories. Administrators advised doctoral students to consider both the origin of their degree and how to position themselves within academic networks and forms of symbolic capital. These findings reveal how credentialism and a localized cycle of credibility operate in tandem, as international prestige is strategically valued while academic inbreeding is treated with caution, reflecting uneven logics of symbolic capital. Doctoral qualifications matter, functioning as symbolic gatekeepers that reinforce institutional hierarchies. The study concludes with implications and suggestions for future research.