The study analysed the profiles and publishing productivity of teachers and researchers with foreign backgrounds in comparison with native Finnish teaching and research staff, between 2012 and 2014. Statistics compiled from the Vipunen statistics service provided by the Finnish National Board of Education, as well as publication and staff information data from the Ministry of Education and Culture were used as the research data.

The research showed that foreign teachers and researchers accounted for slightly under one-fifth (18 %) of the total person-years of the teaching and research staff in Finnish universities between 2012 and 2014. The contribution of foreign researchers and teachers was particularly high during the early stages of a researcher’s career. The proportion of person-years contributed by professors, research managers, and similar (career path stage IV) was significantly lower. Foreign researchers and teachers at this level were usually from the so-called central countries of science: the UK, Germany, and the USA. Of foreign doctoral students (career path stage I), Russian, Chinese, and Indian researchers and teachers accounted for the largest proportion of person-years.

Publishing productivity was studied using three indicators: 1) publications/person-years; 2) publication points/publications; and 3) international joint publications/publications. There were no significant differences between the publishing activity of Finnish and foreign researchers and teachers, but the activities were focused on slightly different areas, manifesting differently according to the stage of the researchers’ careers, the discipline, and the researcher’s gender. During the early stages of their research careers (career path stages I and II), Finnish researchers and teachers produced more publications relative to person-years, but as the career becomes more stabilised (career path stage IV), foreign male researchers were on average more productive in all three areas of publishing activity. Foreign researchers also produced a higher proportion of international joint publications than their Finnish counterparts, regardless of career stage.