The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which international faculty in
a non-Western country align their research output to the research priorities determined
by the government. To address the research purpose, we used content analysis method.
The study relied on secondary publication data from abstracts of articles published by NU
international faculty in peer-reviewed journals included in the Thompson Reuters’ Web of
Science. The results of the content analysis revealed that international faculty from NU
largely produce research relevant to the country’s needs. This is particularly typical of
researchers in sciences whose research generally aligned to the country’s research priorities;
meanwhile, researchers in social sciences and humanities produce a greater number of
irrelevant articles in their total number of publications. Several possible explanations for
the revealed results were discussed. This study attempts to provide a comprehensive picture
on the role of NU and its international faculty in pursuing the country’s needs.