Satisfaction in Stages: The Academic Profession in the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth

Abstract

Academic staff are often presented in analysis as though they are a homogenous entity, but little could be further from the truth. In this chapter, we argue that academics differ in their responses to the changes and new influences in higher education and that this might be partly explained by differences in status within academic and institutional hierarchies, subject characteristics and generational differences. The academic staff population has been divided into three groups: a ‘young’ group of respondents under the age of 40 that entered academia via traditional pathways; a ‘mature, recent’ group of academics who are over the age of 40 and have entered the profession within the last 10 years; and an ‘older, established’ group. To provide a point of comparison, the UK respondents have been compared with equivalent age groups from the British Commonwealth countries comprising Australia, Canada and South Africa.