Market Briefs

Short, sourced readings of the faculty market: who is moving, where, in which fields, and what an appointment adds. Each brief is drawn from the open scholarly record, read in ATLAS, and free to download.

Market briefOctober 20265 pages

The Global Faculty Market, 2026

Where research-active faculty move between five regions, the corridors that carry them, and an opening for universities hiring in each.

Five regions · 8,762,862 researchers · moves detected 2021 to 2026

Europe drew more researchers from the other regions than it lost, +2.7 per 1,000 net of departures; the Americas were close to balance.
The Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa lost the largest shares of their research workforce, 8.8 and 5.9 per 1,000. The loss does not fall on the Gulf: its six states drew about 2,400 researchers from other regions and lost about 1,200.
Movement between regions is exchange more than flight: about 8,600 researchers moved from Asia-Pacific to the Americas between 2021 and 2024, and about 8,600 the other way.
Cross-region moves ran at about 10 per 1,000 researchers in computer science, physics and astronomy, and engineering, and about 4 per 1,000 in social sciences, medicine, and agricultural and biological sciences.

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Market briefOctober 20265 pages

Gulf Faculty Movement, 2026

The eastward turn: who is arriving at Gulf universities, from where, in which fields, and where the openings are.

Six Gulf states · 215 institutions · moves detected 2021 to 2026

Arrivals are turning east: the United States and the United Kingdom went from between 24 and 27% of arrivals to between 16 and 17%.
The United States is the corridor that runs both ways, and the largest destination of departures.
Engineering and computing take a growing share of arrivals; medicine and the foundational sciences a shrinking one.
Within the Gulf, moves run towards the United Arab Emirates, 8 to 10 to one.

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Market briefOctober 20265 pages

What an Appointment Adds

About half of arrivals raise their institution's research average. Their record before the move shows which half.

Confirmed arrivals at Gulf institutions · moves complete by 2023 · outcomes through 2025

Arrivals publish more and are cited more after the move; about half rise above their new institution's average.
The record before the move is the clearest signal: 68 to 70% of arrivals above the average beforehand are above it after, against 35 to 47% of the rest.
Where an arrival comes from and how long their career is show no clear difference; the field and the record do.
A few arrivals carry most of the gain: the strongest fifth wrote 62% of the arrivals' world top-10% papers.

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Market Briefs

The Global Faculty Market, 2026

Gulf Faculty Movement, 2026

What an Appointment Adds

New findings on faculty and research performance, about once a month.