Academic Workload and Quality

Abstract

While there is an increasing demand of academics to do more teaching, research and community service, there is also increasing pressure to improve the quality of such work. The emerging dilemma between increasing the quantity and quality of academic work and its implications are the focus of this paper. Academic work appears to be taken for granted by administrators as it is rarely defined in contracts, either quantitatively or qualitatively. In this paper the complexity of the relationships between quantity and quality of academic work is analysed in terms of relevant concepts and processes. It is argued that the achievement of higher quality in academic work requires a better understanding of the factors involved by academics, administrators and the funding bodies responsible for higher education.