Academic inbreeding is the practice in academia of a university hiring its own graduates to be professors. It is generally viewed as insular and unhealthy for academia. It is thought to hinder the introduction of ideas from outside sources, just as genetic inbreeding hinders the introduction of new genes into a population.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_inbreeding

Academic inbreeding—involving the appointment of faculty members who graduated from the institution employing them—is considered a small and peripheral aspect of the academic profession but is quite widespread globally. While inbreeding has deleterious effects on universities, it is widely perceived as a “normal” part of academic life—and some positive aspects are evident.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-015-9391-8

Academic inbreeding is not defined as completely negative but rather fulfills a developmental role, particularly in the early development of these higher education systems, assuming a more detrimental effect later on. Three suggestions to curtail academic inbreeding are forwarded: not ending it by decree, fostering internationalization (especially mobility) and implementing transparent recruitment practices.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162515002061

Recent analyses on the subject have shown that inbred academics publish on average fewer research outputs oriented towards international literature than non-inbred academics – 15% in the case of the Mexican higher education system and 11% in the case of the Portuguese system – and that this lesser productivity is related to an excessive focus by inbred academics on knowledge that circulates and is reproduced within their university to the detriment of knowledge that circulates outside. However, these same studies show that those academics who have moved from one institution to another, but who are currently working in the university where they graduated, have collaboration patterns and research productivity that are unlike those of inbred academics.

Studies on the Mexican and Japanese higher education systems show that some academic inbreeding can benefit universities, mainly by fostering organisational identity and stability. Recent and ongoing research on the subject suggests that policies favouring transparent academic recruitment processes, mobility, and internationalisation and international-based evaluation processes can curb the tendency to inbreed.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile.php?story=20131009120224656

Dear Dr Claudia Vargas-Díaz . See the following useful RG link: Article Academic inbreeding: local challenge, global problem

Kindly check also the following very good RG link: Article The role of academic inbreeding in developing higher educati...

Also check please the following useful RG link: Article Academic inbreeding: Exploring its characteristics and ratio...

The following RG link is also useful: Article How do university systems' features affect academic inbreedi...

Also check please the following very good RG link: Working Paper Academic Inbreeding and Research Productivity of Russian Fac...

thank you Arbind K. Choudhary and Aref Wazwaz

I don't think it is a good practice, some of the processes might be compromised due to the influence some scholars have within those institutions

I agree with the opinions of colleagues. Indeed, its goal may be to monopolize the knowledge of this institution or university, but at the same time it will make it closed in terms of knowledge exchange with other institutions and universities... Therefore, I think that this principle has negative effects on the research and the academic output because it is more like a principle that believes in stopping time and revolving things only without developing them... My sincere gratitude to all.

This is one socially charged phrase. In principle, it has some pros but, in my opinion, its cons are much more.

In our part of the world, it offers aspiring graduates opportunities to funded scholarships to finish their PhDs, otherwise financially unaffordable, only to come back to be committed to long-term contracts _normally double the years of funded scholarship time_ with lower pays!

I appreciate all your comments Manal Had Kanaan and Ahmed T.Hussein

Academic inbreeding, as viewed by some, is almost akin to closed flock selection in a poultry flock. It does not open doors from outstanding academic scholars thus possibly hindering improvement ( hybridization). Hence has limitation on its own for further progress.

I understand most of the reasons stated above, but all of them are quite general, while the problem finally affects individuals. Thus, in the light of the previous considerations, could someone answer me the following question:

If, as a scholar, I want to work in the same institution I was formed, why shouldn't I? What is bad about it?

Also I think that this view leads to some contradictory situations. For example, let us assume that university A is the best university in the world for some field. Then, it is to be expected that the best scholars of this field will be formed at A. Then, when A needs to recruit a new member, it is to be expected that they will want to hire the best candidate, and this candidate will very likely come from A itself... then, should A hire a worse candidate just because it was not formed there? This policy would ultimately lead to the best candidates moving to, say, B and to A losing its first place...

The problem is not "inbreeding" in itself. The problem is when criteria different than the value of the candidates is taken into account in the selection processes. "Inbreeding" may cause this, but not necessarily.

There may be some more intellectuals in some field from another institution worth getting appointed,such that standards set by A institution may further be improved. Hence, so called academic inbreeding can be avoided. Diversification is a necessity for improvement

The best universities rarely hire their own students.

Claudia Vargas-Díaz

But they sometimes do... so my point is that hiring your own students is not bad 'per se'. It is bad if it is a consequence of some other hidden variable.

I repeat, if a Harvard alumni earns a Nobel prize I am quite sure that Harvard would be really willing to hire her... I cannot imagine Havard HR department saying something in the line of "oh yes, she is a Nobel laureate but she got her PhD from us so we better let her go to Yale...".

Thus, if there is "inbreeding" there are lots of things to be analyzed in order to determine if it is really an indication of bad practices or not. It is not so simple. Furthermore, in today's world in which I can be talking in real time with colleagues from all over the world, the possibility of accesing "new" ideas is much more likely...

No entendí que alguien dijera que sea algo malo. Se habló de las consecuencias. Si un estudiante es bueno y logra sus metas, parece adecuado que lo demuestre en otras universidades. Y si gana un premio Nobel, tanto mejor. Podremos decir con orgullo: ¡nosotros lo formamos!

Acquiring knowledge from different institutions contribute to more exposure and experience which will be transmitted into whatever work we do

Intellectual inbreeding or academic inbreeding is the practice in academia of a university hiring its own graduates to be professors. It is generally viewed as insular and unhealthy for academia Claudia Vargas-Díaz

Spot on Shivam Maurya ! Academic inbreeding is as unhealthy as it is in plants and animals. You find a department fully staffed with former students who are all beholden the departmental chair who hired them. They dare not question what he/she says are the appropriate paradigms, theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the department. New and innovative ideas often find it difficult to take root in such a department. Inbreeding is the deliberate and often unethical prevention of applicants who are not former students from joining the teaching and research staff of a department. However, it is not inbreeding when all applicants (former students and those from elsewhere) compete for posts on an equal footing. Where there is open competition, it is very unlikely that you can find a department with 75% to 100% of its staff being former students.

Thank you for your explanations Shivam Mauryam, Oswell Namasasu and Oluwadara Pelumi Omotayo