Internationally, salaries are among the most important factors influencing the flow of top academics, given that they spend years working to acquire higher academic qualifications.

Isaac Holloway currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in International Business at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He studied at the University of British Columbia in Canada, gaining a bachelor's degree in math in 2005, followed by an MA in economics in 2006, and a PhD in business economics in 2012.

Holloway said many of China's elite universities are still attracting quality teachers and competing at the international level, at least in economics and management studies.