The European Academic Profession or Academic Professions in Europe?

Abstract

The last chapter is a synopsis of the findings of the previous chapters about the academic profession(s) in Europe. It asks how homogeneous the academic profession is from country to country or if it differs in ways that would justify to characterise them as different professions. In the context of the national structures of the higher education system, a bouquet of topics is brought together. The most outstanding results in respect to career paths, academic working conditions, preferences and time spent for different tasks, as well as the core functions teaching and research shall be summarised. Also, cross-cutting topics like gender, satisfaction, inter-individual diversity, and evaluation and managerial styles shall round up the analysis. Finally, it can be further summarised, that the academic profession is more homogeneous in some respects and more differentiated in other respects.