Introduction to Higher Education theme issue on the Academic Profession in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The academic profession faces significant challenges everywhere the implications of globalization, massification, privatization, and financial problems, among others shape the working conditions of the professoriate. The situation in central and Eastern Europe is especially problematical. Not only are universities facing the problems experienced elsewhere, the region has recently undergone the economic, political, and cultural dislocations brought by the collapse of the Soviet system and its replacement by capitalism. As a result, there is no other world region where higher education is as much in turmoil. These three analyses, dealing with Russia, Bulgaria, and Poland, provide insights into how the academic profession is affected by both university change and massive social dislocation. The situation is not a happy one, and it is a tribute to the academic community that the universities are surviving in difficult circumstances. It is not clear how the professoriate will in the long term be affected by the strains evident in central and Eastern Europe. In Russia especially, financial pressures are just one element of a deteriorating academic situation. Academic freedom is threatened, and the traditional strength of the academic system and its research base is being weakened. A new private sector has emerged, and it is not clear how the academic profession will adapt to these new conditions. Poland, and to a lesser extent Bulgaria, have made the transition more successfiilly, although again the academic systems remain in a somewhat transitional state. One thing is clear the future of higher education in central and Eastern Europe depends on a strong professoriate. This set of articles stems from a research project on the academic profession in developing and middle income countries. Other analyses of developing countries can be found in Philip G. Altbach, ed., The Decline of the Guru: The Academic Profession in Developing Countries (New York: Palgrave, 2003). This project was funded by the Ford Foundation, and it is related to an earlier issue of Higher Education on "The Changing Academic Workplace" (Vol. 41, No. 1-2, 2001). This issue was edited by Philip G. Altbach and Richard Chait.