scholarly journals The Early Career Paths and Employment Conditions of the Academic Profession in 17 Countries

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (S1) ◽  
pp. S7-S33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Bennion ◽  
William Locke

The expansion of higher education systems, new demands on institutions and growing pressures on resources have become common trends across most developed countries. They bring increased expectations of academic staff and appear to lead to greater differentiation in their work roles and activities. At the same time, the backgrounds of some academics are changing and they are developing new specialisms and interdisciplinary collaborations, becoming more mobile domestically and internationally and, for some, the profession is becoming increasingly insecure. The Changing Academic Profession study has produced a rich set of data on the preparation of academics for their roles and the individual circumstances of their working lives, among other aspects of the profession. Respondents to the survey reported on the degrees they have attained, the countries in which they studied for them, the age at which they qualified and the nature of the doctoral training they received. This paper explores the early career paths of academics, makes initial comparisons between different higher education systems and begins to explore how some of these national systems interrelate with each other through academic mobility. Respondents also reported on the disciplines they studied and now teach, the number of institutions worked in and their contractual conditions and income. These data give an indication of the various degrees of flexibility and mobility required of – or chosen by – academics in the early and later stages of their careers and the stability, or perhaps rigidity, of different higher education systems and national career patterns. The data also supplement other evidence of the employment conditions and remuneration of scholars in an increasingly globalised academic labour market.1,2 The conditions of academic work are explored through analysis of the views of survey respondents on the facilities, resources and personnel needed to support it and the degree of research collaboration undertaken. Academics from the 17 countries in the study seem more content with the physical and technical resources provided by their institutions than the personnel and funds available to support teaching and research. Finally, it is suggested that the propensity for collaborative or individual research may be partially related to national differences in academics’ mobility during their training for the profession.

Author(s):  
Nargiza Shamshieva Nosirkhodjaevna

The significance of the higher education can be seen in terms of assisting the economy with skillful specialists who are considered to be the key force for the development of the country. Higher education is considered to be crucial in modern market-based economies. Particularly, the higher education enables the development and maintenance of the knowledge acquired by the youth. Higher education contributes to the development of the human capital, which can later act as crucial aspect of growth. This paper takes a broad perspective on the importance of higher education, precisely to the structure of Master’s degree programs, in many developed countries of the world including USA, UK and Germany. The paper uses the benchmarking method in order to analyze and apply practices of higher education systems in Uzbekistan. It is important to note that current state of higher education institutions in Uzbekistan reflects the practice of former Soviet Union institutions and needs to adopt strategies that are followed by world’s top universities. The main purpose of this paper is to critically examine the practices and evaluating the higher education system of these countries. The outcomes of the analysis are used to offer a framework for the development of higher education systems precisely in the context of masters programs, in Uzbekistan.


Author(s):  
June Tran

The rapid change in the graduate labour market in the globalizing era calls for responsiveness from the higher education systems all over the world. Enhancing graduate employability has become a topic of both concern and debate in higher education worldwide. However, the issue is somehow different in Western developed countries and in Eastern developing countries in terms of the way higher education teaching staff perceive the issues, the way universities approach the issues and also the way university practices have been designed to enhance graduate employability. This article aims to illustrate the differences by addressing the issue of enhancing graduate employability in Vietnam compared with that in the literature from developed countries such as US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. It is suggested that while not all academics in Western higher education systems support the idea of accepting enhancing graduate employability as one of the university missions, their teaching practices, in general, support the development of graduate generic attributes, which are claimed to be essential and necessary for graduates to enter the labour market, to succeed at work and in life. By contrast, in the Vietnamese higher education system, where the main mission for universities is still limited to producing an educated labour force for the industry, however, the traditional teaching and learning method and the lack of connections between university, research institutions and the internal industry all hinder the effort of the whole system in preparing students with the necessary skills and knowledge required by the contemporary labour market.


Author(s):  
Jane Kotzmann

This chapter explores the real-life operation of six higher education systems that align with the theoretical models identified in Chapter 2. Three states follow a largely market-based approach: Chile, England, and the United States. Three states follow a largely human rights-based approach: Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. The chapter describes each system in terms of how it aligns with the particular model before evaluating the system in relation to the signs and measures of successful higher education systems identified in Chapter 3. This chapter provides conclusions as to the relative likelihood of each approach facilitating the achievement of higher education teaching and learning purposes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Dao Truong

Purpose Although the social marketing field has developed relatively quickly, little is known about the careers of students who chose social marketing as their main subject of study. Such research is important not only because it reveals employment trends and mobility but also because it informs policy making with respect to curriculum development as well as raises governmental and societal interest in the social marketing field. This paper aims to analyse the career pathways of doctoral graduates who examined social marketing as the subject of their theses. Doctoral graduates represent a special group in a knowledge economy, who are considered the best qualified for the creation and dissemination of knowledge and innovation. Design/methodology/approach A search strategy identified 209 doctoral-level social marketing theses completed between 1971 and 2015. A survey was then delivered to dissertation authors, which received 117 valid responses. Findings Results indicate that upon graduation, most graduates secured full-time jobs, where about 66 per cent worked in higher education, whereas the others worked in the government, not-for-profit and private sectors. Currently, there is a slight decline in the number of graduates employed in the higher education, government and not-for-profit sectors but an increase in self-employed graduates. A majority of graduates are working in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. Overall, levels of international mobility and research collaboration are relatively low. Originality/value This is arguably the first study to examine the career paths of social marketing doctoral graduates.


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