Academic Profession In Europe Research Articles

Challenges in developing the academic profession in the Western Balkans

AbstractIn this paper, we explore the developmental challenges facing the academic profession in Europe and especially in some Western Balkan countries, Croatia and Slovenia. First, we look at how the higher education environment determines key changes to the academic profession: expectations to demonstrate professional expertise, internationalisation, segmentation, and precarity. While these processes are mainly considered from the above perspective, we also examine the work of academics from within. Second, we discuss aspects of academic tasks, challenges of synchronising academic work with performance measures, intensification of work and expansion of bureaucratic tasks. Building on these perspectives, we introduce a qualitative pilot study that tests how these general trends described in the literature may be applied to given situations in five countries of former Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo. Although these countries cover a relatively small geographical area, the differences among them with respect to the economy, society and politics are important. Our findings suggest that problems accumulating in academic work in Slovenia and Croatia were in almost all of the surveyed aspects less problematic than in the three other observed countries.

The European Research Council and the academic profession: insights from studying starting grant holders

The ERC grant system has had a significant impact on the academic profession in Europe, by enforcing norms about what constitutes a promising research career, increasing the autonomy of individual top scholars and facilitating competition between universities. Winning an ERC starting grant has a considerable effect on individual career prospects. A grant significantly increases the likelihood of promotion, and the effect seems to be robust to a potential “selection bias” or individual research performance. While the grant increases the negotiation position of the grant winner, moving to another university is rare. Increased visibility and prestige within the university seem to contribute to career progress.

“Internationalists” and “Locals” in Research: Similar Productivity Patterns Across Europe

The article shows a high correlation between international collaboration in research and research productivity across eleven European systems and major academic disciplines. The data come from global CAP (The Changing Academic Profession) and European EUROAC (“The Academic Profession in Europe: Responses to Societal Challenges”) projects, and include 17,211 usable cases. Cross-national and cross-disciplinary differences are studied and groups of “internationals” and “locals” in research are contrasted.

The unfading power of collegiality? University governance in Poland in a European comparative and quantitative perspective

This paper studies the applicability of theoretical models of university governance from the international research literature to the Polish system. In particular, it is to test the applicability of a collegial model in the Polish case. The research question was ‘to what extent is a collegial model reflected in actual governance patterns found in the Polish university sector’. This is based on large-scale internationally comparable quantitative material. The empirical evidence for it comes from 3700 returned surveys in Poland (and more than 17,000 in eleven European countries) produced for two international research projects focused on the academic profession (CAP: “Changing Academic Profession” and EUROAC: “The Academic Profession in Europe”). This paper concludes that Polish universities are operating according to the traditional collegial model of the university as a “community of scholars” to an extent that is unparalleled in Western Europe. A detailed study of selected variables and specifically constructed indexes indicates that the defining feature of Polish academia today is the power of academic collegial bodies. The influence of collegial bodies on academic decision-making in Poland is the highest in Europe; and, in contrast, the power of the government and external stakeholders is the lowest. However, academics, sharing the “republic of scholars” institutional vision of the university, and still highly influential in university decision-making, are currently confronted with higher education reforms grounded in an instrumental vision of the university (in which it is a tool for national political agendas). Consequently, powerful value-driven clashes between the academic community and the community of policymakers and reformers are to be expected to intensify. The major theoretical concepts used in this paper come from Johan P. Olsen’s, Ian McNay’s and Robert Birnbaum’s studies of university governance, and its findings are presented from a European comparative and quantitative perspective.

The Internationalization of the Academic Profession in Europe. A Quantitative Study of 11 National Systems

This paper explores various aspects of the internationalization of the academic profession in Europe, using a micro-level (individual) approach which relies on the primary data collected in a comparable format from 17,211 European academics from 11 countries. It focuses, in particular, on 1) the patterns of internationalization of teaching, research, and publishing in hard vs. soft clusters of academic fields and on 2) the role of international research cooperation in individual research productivity. Research productivity and international publication co-authorship of “internationalists” and “locals” (or academics collaborating and not collaborating internationally) across Europe are compared. Finally, policy implications of the study for national research policies are briefly discussed.

The Romanian Modern University in the Frame of the Academic Profession and Governance

To develop education in a new economic context calls for new knowledge and new modalities of political governing. This paper explores how the academic profession in Romania perceives, interprets and interacts with changes in the socio-economic environment and in the organisational structure of higher education systems and higher education institutions. The analysis is based on data gathered to accomplish a cross study on the influence of the European governance in the countries involved in the EuroHESC project EUROAC – The Academic Profession in Europe: responses to societal challenges (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Romania, and Croatia as Principal Investigators and Finland and Poland as Associated Partners). In our analysis we focused on the themes covering hierarchy, external decision maker (stakeholder) and management. The data are based on the results from an online questionnaire which was conducted in Romania between November 2009 and June 2010.

Conflicting Expectations in Term of Quality Assurance in Teaching and Research

We present some preliminary results of academic consulting about the relevance of academic activities as teaching and research and to their impacts on universities and the benefits to academic world. In recent times attention has moved towards concern for teaching and quality of teaching to meritocracy or links between achievement in higher education and career success. This study is foremost considered a contribution to the growth of knowledge on the linkage between quality management system in Higher Education Institutions and quantity of the teaching and research outcomes. The analysis is based on data gathered to accomplish a cross study on the influence of the European governance in the countries involved in the EuroHESC project EUROAC – The Academic Profession in Europe: responses to societal challenges (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Romania, and Croatia as Principal Investigators and Finland and Poland as Associated Partners).

The Academic Profession in Europe: A View from the Status Perspective

Interest in the status and functions, the potentials and the vulnerability of the academic profession has grown in recent years. International comparison is of special interest in this context: are the problems experienced universal or country-specific? Are there options and conditions in individual countries which might suggest solutions for the future? This paper analyses the findings and implications of the ?International Survey on the Academic Profession? with a special focus on the rank structure and various subgroups of academics in the European countries involved in this empirical study. The analysis focuses on the way academics handle their various rofessional tasks and functions, their institutional commitment and influence, as well as aspects of job satisfaction and faculty morale. This paper shows the general trends and common elements as regards the forces of integration and fragmentation of various status groups within the academic professions as well as the substantial differences according to country.