1 Biographies and Careers throughout Academic Life: Introductory Comments. Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes, Akira Arimoto, Ulrich Teichler, and John Brennan. - Part I. Emerging Higher Education Systems. – 2 Identity Features and Working Conditions of Argentine Academics: A Comparative Study of Two Disciplinary Communities. Mercedes Leal, Sergio Robin, and María A. Maidana. – 3 Brazilian Higher Education: Converging Trajectory Patterns in a Diverse Institutional Environment. Elizabeth Balbachevsky.- 4 Personal Characteristics, Career Trajectory and Job Satisfaction of Academics in Malaysia. Vincent Pang, Norzaini Azman, Morshidi Sirat, and Koo Yew Lie.- 5 The Mexican Academic Profession between Centuries: Who are the Actors? Manuel Gil-Antón, Laura E. Padilla-González, and Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes.- 6 The South African Academic Profession: Personal Characteristics, Career Trajectories, Identities and Sense of Commitment. Charl C. Wolhuter, Philip Higgs, and Leonie G. Higgs.- Part II. Mature Higher Education Systems.- 7 The Changing Academic Profession in Canada: Personal Characteristics, Career Trajectories, Sense of Identity/Commitment and Job Satisfaction. Amy Scott Metcalfe, Donald Fisher, Glen Jones, Yves Gingras, Kjell Rubenson, and Iain Snee.- 8 In and Out of the Laboratory: Herzberg, Job Satisfaction and the Attitudes of Finnish University Academics. Timo Aarrevaara and Ian R Dobson.- 9 A Portrait of the Changing Academic Profession in the Netherlands. Harry van der Kaap and Egbert de Weert.- 10 Academics Professional Characteristics and Trajectories: The Portuguese Case. Rui Santiago, Teresa Carvalho, Sofia Branco Sousa, Diana Dias, and Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor.- 11 Academic Inbreeding of Korean Professors: Academic Training, Networks, and their Performance. Jung Cheol Shin, Jisun Jung, and Soo Jeung Lee.- Part III. Comparative Studies.- 12 Identity of Argentine Academics: International and Compared Perspective. Martín Aiello and Cristian Pérez-Centeno.- 13 How Do Personal Characteristics Influence Scholarly Productivity? A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Academic Professions. Zeng Lin and Hong Shen.- 14 Career and Self-Understanding of Academics in Germany in Comparative Perspective. Ester Ava Höhle and Ulrich Teichler.- 15 Changing Academic Career Trajectories and Identity/Commitment of Academics in Japan. Akira Arimoto.- 16 Academic Advancement and Gender: A Comparative Analysis. William K. Cummings and Olga Bain.- 17 Demographics, Career and Academic Self-Understanding: A Comparative View. Jesús F. Galaz-Fontes, Akira Arimoto, Ulrich Teichler, and John Brennan.- Appendix: A Bibliography of Publications of the Project “The Changing Academic Profession” (CAP) and Related Projects. Compiled by Ester Ava Höhle and Ulrich Teichler
The book draws on the 2007 Changing
Academic Profession international survey in order to document the personal
characteristics, career trajectories, sense of identity/commitment and job
satisfaction of academics in 14 countries with different levels of economic and
social development and different higher education systems. With nearly 26,000
academics surveyed in 19 countries (of which 14 are reporting their results in
this volume), the empirical basis of the book is the most up-to-date and
far-reaching in the area.
With major changes taking place both in the
local and global contexts of higher education and in the working conditions
within individual universities, as exemplified by increasing managerialism and
performance-based funding, it is important to consider the impact of these
changes on the profiles and working lives of the academic profession across
different countries. But it is also important to look at the ways in which the
faculty’s changing profile impacts on the organisation and management of
universities and on the delivery of their central functions.
Although not always obvious in the
short-term, academic work and its conditions attract, incorporate and promote
different types of individuals who, in turn, exert considerable influence on
the nature of academic work, higher education institutions and, potentially,
society. As faculty members are central to the teaching, research and service
enterprise activities of higher education, it is important to understand their
personal characteristics, career trajectories, sense of identity and
commitment, and job satisfaction. These are central for understanding the
academic profession in general and, in particular, the factors affecting their
involvement and productivity in the work of their institutions. These are a
complex result of a mixture of contextual factors (e.g. the status and
regulatory framework of the higher education system, the features and
atmosphere of the particular institution) and personal factors (e.g. gender,
educational attainment, family background, attitudes to work and broader social
values).This book examines the different situations facing the academic
profession in individual countries and provides comparative studies of country
differences.