A Strategic Approach to Global Recruitment
German universities must take a strategic approach to global recruitment to stay competitive in the evolving international academic landscape. With the U.S. becoming less attractive for researchers and China’s scientific influence rising, Germany has a unique opportunity to attract top talent. To succeed, universities must enhance their appeal, refine recruitment strategies, and prioritize onboarding measures to ensure a smooth transition, integration, and long-term retention of international researchers, says Cathleen Fisher, one of our Experts on International Mobility.
By Cathleen Fisher
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The internationalization of science, research, and higher education is essential to Germany’s efforts to remain globally competitive, sustain innovation, and secure future prosperity. In recent years, efforts to attract more foreign students and repatriate German academics abroad have brought new international perspectives to research and teaching. Progress in attracting foreign academics has progressed more slowly, however. The successful recruitment of international talent could help to accelerate scientific advances, boost German innovation, and fuel entrepreneurial activity.[1]
To attract and retain “true internationals,” German universities will need to develop a more strategic approach that:
- addresses the challenges and opportunities of a dynamic global scientific environment and communicates the advantages of the German research and higher education system to a global talent pipeline;
- reflects an understanding of what factors attract and are necessary to retain highly skilled professionals; and
- encourages applications from talented foreign academics through targeted recruitment and measures to facilitate relocation and integration.
A Changing Global Context for International Recruitment: Complex, Competitive and Uncertain
Following decades of growth in international scientific mobility and collaboration, we are witnessing the forceful return of geopolitics to the global scientific enterprise. Scientific freedom and science without borders remain worthy aspirations, but countries may reevaluate the benefits and risks of international cooperation with select countries for geostrategic, political, and economic reasons. The emerging landscape of international science—complex, competitive, and uncertain—brings new challenges as well as opportunities for German universities interested in recruiting international academics.
Developments in two of the major players in international science—the United States and China—may be particularly relevant. As a recent report of the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded, with new talent pools emerging worldwide: “The global competition for talent is fiercer than ever.” [2]
US Science and the Second Trump Administration
At this juncture, it is impossible to predict the full impact of a second Trump Administration on international student and faculty recruitment by US universities, but science and higher education in the United States are likely to be affected significantly by deep cuts in federal research funding and in the federal scientific work force, as well as an increasingly hostile environment for immigrants, illegal and legal.
Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired tens of thousands of federal civil servants, including in science, medicine, and public health, in a rapid, indiscriminate, and often chaotic manner. The initial focus on employees with probationary status affected many promising young scientific investigators, sending a chilling signal to other next generation researchers.[3] Additional funding and staffing cuts, or threats to intellectual freedom, will further diminish the United States’ standing and reputation as a place of opportunity for international scientific talent.
Harsher immigration rules and brutalizing rhetoric may further reduce the United States attractiveness to international researchers. Immigration was a prominent theme in the 2024 presidential campaign, as Trump promised implementation of tough measures to address illegal immigration, including mass detentions and deportations, and frequently used demeaning and dehumanizing language to describe legal and illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. In one of his first Executive Orders (already being challenged in US courts) Trump eliminated the constitutional provision for birthright citizenship for those in the country illegally. On the issue of legal immigration, corporate leaders, particularly in the tech sector, have pressed Trump to expand the H-1B visa program, which allows companies to bring in highly skilled workers from outside the United States, but other Trump allies oppose a move that benefits corporations and does little for Trump’s MAGA base.[4]
Leading US academic institutions will not cease trying to recruit foreign students and academics. If the past is any guide, however, the United States will be a far less welcoming place to international talent in perception and reality, dampening interest in study, post-doctoral work, and academic employment in the United States. During the first Trump term (2016-19), an MIT study estimates that US universities forfeited nearly 150,000 new international graduate enrollments.[5] A repeated loss of this magnitude would be significant, as a common path for foreign scientists and scholars who later obtain academic appointments in the United States is prior study or post-doctoral work in the United States.[6]
A decline in the United States’ ability to attract and retain foreign born scientists and scholars would weaken US science and higher education and effect a seismic shift in the global academic market. As underscored in an August 2024 report of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering on international talent programs, the United States is increasingly dependent on international scientists and engineers to sustain scientific advances and innovation, yet it faces robust international competition for that talent as more countries operate programs to win back their scientific expats and attract new international recruits.[7] In this context, a US academic career may appear risky and uncertain and make the United States a less attractive destination for foreign academics.
China: The Benefits and Risks of Cooperation with a Rising Global Scientific Power
The other notable geostrategic shift of course is China’s expanding scientific and engineering prowess and rapid advances in critical technologies, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, and biotechnology. The payoff from decades of directed and sustained investment in science and engineering education, and research and development, was seen most recently in the dramatic debut of China’s new artificial intelligence (AI) model, DeepSeek, but is also reflected in China’s international patents, published research, and doctoral awards in STEM.[8] Since President Xi assumed power in 2013, China has introduced 8-10 leading talent programs, supplemented by many hundreds of provincial and municipal talent programs, to encourage foreign-educated scientists and engineers to return to China and effect a “reverse brain drain.” China is also seeking to use Chinese scholars and scientists abroad to gain advantage in key areas of scientific research and development. While cooperation with Chinese institutions and scientists can yield significant benefits, universities should consider and be able to mitigate any associated risks.[9]
German universities need to understand how these and other changes in the global scientific landscape may affect their prospects for international recruitment. While some foreign academics may still be attracted by the flexibility and openness of the US system, the policies and rhetoric of the second Trump administration will enhance the risk and uncertainty associated with an academic career path in the United States, which entails less job security, and intense competition for a dwindling number of tenure-track positions and research dollars. In this context, the German academic system has much to offer, namely, a balance of excellence with security, including a rising number of tenure-track opportunities, and a strong track record of sustained investment in higher education and research, not only in STEM fields but also in the social sciences and humanities, as well as a stronger social safety net. But German universities need to know how to communicate those strengths to the best international talent through a strategic, proactive, and creative approach.
Recruiting International Academics: Key Factors and the Importance of a “Soft Landing”
The OECD’s Talent Indicator Framework provides a useful starting point to understand Germany’s relative strengths and weaknesses among the 38 countries in the OECD.[10] As seen in Figure 1 (below), a wide range of factors affect a country’s attractiveness in the competition for highly skilled global talent, including the nature of the job opportunity, salary and taxation levels, quality of life, the visa and immigration system, and societal inclusiveness and equality.[11] In the 2023 ranking, the most attractive OECD countries for global talent were, in descending order, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Norway, followed by Luxembourg, Great Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark.[12] Germany ranked 15 among OECD countries in attractiveness for international talent.
While universities can influence some factors positively, others lie beyond their control. For example, institutions may be able to enhance the quality of the job opportunity (salary, type of contract), provide an attractive research infrastructure (funding, staff), and offer support for relocating spouses/partners and children. They have little direct influence over taxation and inflation rates, a tight housing market, lagging digitalization, or societal attitudes toward immigration. On the other hand, universities may be able to lessen the negative effects of such factors through onboarding measures, for example, designation of a person to handle visa issues, provision of temporary housing and/or support for a housing search, and cooperation with local partners to help spouses/partners build new professional networks and generate attractive employment opportunities.
Figure 1. Attractiveness of Countries to International Talent: Factors and Variables
Adapted from OECD Migration Policy Debates No. 29 (March 2023), Table 1. Overview of Dimensions and Variables in the Talent Indicator Framework.
Such onboarding and integration measures are not just “nice to have.” They are essential to help foreign hires surmount the many simultaneous challenges of international relocation and integration, so that they may become focused, productive, and functional colleagues at an institution in an expeditious manner.
Universities must be realistic about the challenges that foreign academics face. They may be unfamiliar with German tax, pension, and health care systems, as well as how housing, utilities and banking function. They may be accustomed to a far greater degree of digitalization and find German bureaucracy frustratingly slow, complicated and unresponsive. Within the university, foreign academics may lack knowledge about institutional culture and have weak or nonexistent professional and social networks. Appreciation for their professional experience and identify, as well as fluency in the professional language of their field, may also be wanting.
A decentralized approach to relocation and onboarding, involving “Welcome Centers” or other university offices can be helpful but possibly inadequate. If many are responsible then, in the end, no one is. Providing the foreign academic a single point of contact responsible for coordinating with other university departments, government offices, and external service providers can keep the relocation and integration process on track, relieving the new hire from becoming a de facto, self-appointed relocation and integration manager. The mentality behind the all too often-heard phrase in German bureaucracies “ich bin nicht zustaendig” has to be replaced with an attitude of accountability and a can-do mind-set.
In the end, onboarding measures may make the crucial difference in whether applicants, once hired, want to stay. As an OECD study of regional approaches to recruitment concludes: “People’s first experience of a place plays a significant role in determining long-term stays and their willingness to spread the word to others.” In other words, a “soft landing” is critical not only to retain the foreign academic that German universities have invested time, effort and resources in securing, but also to future efforts to win “true internationals".[13]
The Importance of Strategic, Proactive, and Creative Recruitment Plans
Institutions can maximize the chances that talented foreign researchers will be interested in applying for a position, accept an offer, and have a “soft landing” by thinking strategically and employing a targeted, creative, and proactive approach to recruitment, keeping the following factors and questions in mind:
Be strategic and, if possible, person-specific in recruitment. What are the specific aims for a position? Is the position description crafted in such a way that desirable international candidates will find the position understandable and enticing? What are the unique needs of top candidates, based on their life situation and professional stage and path? What is needed to ensure their expeditious pre-boarding, on-boarding, and integration? Have a recruitment plan and develop a broad applicant pool Who is responsible for developing the pool? What is the international and national availability of appropriate and desirable candidates for the position? Does the plan include creative approaches to reach a broad pool of candidates? How can a search committee identify, reach, and encourage applications from the strongest researchers in the desired discipline and field of research?[14]
Communicate the strengths of the German academic system clearly and confidently and provide context for negative or faulty perceptions. The German academic system has important advantages in the current climate of uncertainty and risk in global science. Germany’s sustained investment in excellent research and universities, the creation of more tenure track positions with a clearly delineated path to a secure position, and strong European research networks may be strongly appealing to talented academics seeking attractive professional opportunities balanced with greater security. Universities should also provide context for or correctives to impressions that may have molded by media reports on economic stagnation, lagging digitalization, rising tax and social welfare contributions, and anti-immigration sentiment in Germany, all of which could color candidates’ assessments of future income and prospects, the skills environment, and their acceptance into German society.
Finally, German universities need to remain adaptable in the face of (un)expected change. For the foreseeable future, the landscape of science, research and higher education will remain in flux. University leaders should try anticipate disruptive changes and their possible negative but also positive consequences for German science and research. At the global level, how might larger geostrategic shifts affect recruitment goals and opportunities? What are prospects for the German science and research system, and for academic career paths, in a changing fiscal and societal environment? How might political developments or the policies of the new federal German government affect perceptions of, or the reputation of, Germany as a welcoming and open country? How can German universities take advantage of the political changes in the US to attract more international talent?
If German universities understand the dynamics of a fluid and globally competitive market, they may be able to exploit new opportunities to attract and retain talented foreign academics that advance the institution’s strategic aims and provided an added boost to internationalization of German higher education and science.
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[1] Comparison of international appointments in academia are difficult, since countries use different definitions and methods to count the number of international academic appointments. International academics comprise 14.7% of all academic staff, an increase of 33% since 2017. Some 7.7% of professorial appointments are international. By comparison, in the United States, an estimated 20-23% of tenure-track appointees are foreign born, with higher percentages in STEM fields. MIT study and 2007/8 article on foreign born academics in US. Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Wissenschaft Weltoffen 2024, https://www.wissenschaft-weltoffen.de/content/uploads/2024/11/wiwe_2024_web_en.pdf.
[2] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2024), https://doi.org/10.17226/27787, p. xiv.
[3] Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientist and Public Health Leaders,” New York Times, February 18, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/us/politics/fda-cdc-health-department-trump.html; Lisa Grossman, “’Uncertain, anxious, fearful.’ That’s the mood at 2025’s first big U.S. science meeting,” Science News, February 15, 2025, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/defunding-research-activism-aaas.
[4] “What is the H-1B Visa Program and Why are Trump Backers Feuding Over It?” New York Times, January 28, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/business/h1b-visa-immigration.html.
[5] Sarah M. Rovito, Divyansh Kaushik, and Surya D. Aggarwal, “The impact of international scientists, engineers, and students on U.S. research outputs and global competitiveness,” MIT Science Policy Review.
[6] Many foreign recipients of doctorates at US universities seek to remain in the United States on temporary visas. In 2021, some 65 percent of foreign doctorate recipients 2010-12 were in the United States, as were 71% of foreign doctorate recipients 2015-17. National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR), 2021.
[7] NASEM, International Talent Programs.
[8] Ibid., National Science Board, A Changed Science and Engineering Landscape 2024.
[9] The NASEM report called for continued training at US universities to address the increased risks.
[10] OECD, “Measuring and assessing talent attractiveness in OECD countries,” OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 229, 29 May 2019, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/measuring-and-assessing-talent-attractiveness-in-oecd-countries_b4e677ca-en.html; OECD, “What is the best country for global talents in the OECD?” Migration Policy Debates, Vol. 29 (March 2023); OECD “How do OECD countries compare in their international attractiveness for talented migrants? Migration Policy Debates, No. 19 (May 2019).
[11] The OECD has also applied the framework to assess the relative attractiveness of OECD countries go entrepreneurs. See OECD, “What are the top OECD destinations for start-up talent?, Migration Policy Debates. Vol. 30.
[12] Ibid. Notably, some of the highest scoring countries, including the United States, fell out of the highest ranking for attractiveness due to their respective visa and immigration systems.
[13] OECD (2023), Rethinking Regional Attractiveness in the New Global Environment, OECD Regional Development Studies, OECD Publish, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a94448db4-en.
[14] Cornell University’s guidelines for best practices in faculty recruitment focuses in particular on targeted recruitment from underrepresented groups, but many of practices apply more generally to creation of a broad pool of applicants, including: examination of the national availability pool data in the United States, which includes information on which universities are awarding doctoral degrees in different fields and specific areas of research, soliciting lists of potential candidates from faculty members, graduate students and postdocs not on the search committee, reviewing lists of editorial boards, early career award winners, and award winner in professional societies, asking colleagues in your field of emerging talent, and actively recruiting candidates to apply through personal outreach. Staying in touch with foreign nationals who have studied at your university may also help to broaden the pipeline. See Cornell University, Best Practices in Faculty Recruitment, https://facultydevelopment.cornell.edu/leadership-resources/recruitment/best-practices-in-faculty-recruitment/.