The Changing Conditions for Academic Work and Careers in Select Countries [antikvár]

Introduction William Locke and Ulrich Teichler Institutions of higher education are usually acknowledged as the key organizations in society serving the generation, preservation and dissemination of systematic knowledge. The academic profession constitutes the "productive workforce" within these institutions. Academics are highly respected because they form the "key profession" among the professions, as the British social historian Harold Perkin once wrote, i.e. the apex of knowledge in all disciplinary and professional areas. They are a highly select group and have succeeded in most countries over long periods of history in claiming that academic freedom and the governance of their institutions as a republic of scholars were both necessary to ensure the highest quality and significance of higher education. In many countries of the world, a third claim has also been fundamental for about the last two centuries: that the highest quality is guaranteed if the academics at universities - the traditional core institutions of higher education in most countries of the world - are in charge of both the generation and dissemination of knowledge, i.e. research and teaching. As the academic profession is so central to the functioning of the higher education system, academics are bound to experience substantial changes when higher education as a whole undergoes major transformation. Since the recovery from the devastation of World War II, higher education in many parts of the world has experienced unprecedented growth. Overall student enrolment all over the world has increased more than ten times within five decades. Most narrative accounts suggest that the institutions at the top hardly changed initially while systems developed a longer tail of new institutions only in part reflecting the quality, the functional composition, and the academic freedom of those at the top. The student protests in the late 1960s are often seen as the impetus for major reconsideration of structure, functions, governance, and the modes of teaching and learning. Altogether, both expansion and these major reforms reflect the growing importance of higher education for nations and, in a wider context, a major component of what is called the trend towards the "knowledge society". It is interesting to note that the growing societal importance of higher education does not guarantee greater public appreciation or a higher self-esteem. On the contrary, academics lose some of their social exclusiveness and uniqueness as