Global Vertical Stratification of Institutions and the Academic Profession: The Role of Research in Future High Participation Environments (original) (raw)
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The research-induced global vertical stratification of higher education institutions seems to be accompanied by the ongoing vertical differentiation of the academic profession. Both processes can be expected to intensify. The various segments of the profession and components of higher education systems have been drifting apart. A general contrast has emerged between the haves and have-nots in terms of working conditions and attractiveness of the academic profession at the individual level, and the global visibility in league tables and access to national research funding at the institutional level. The processes of the concentration of research in selected institutions may have a powerful impact on academic lives and careers. The attractiveness of the academic profession and workplace is at stake, especially in those institutions that are not going to be research-intensive and will be predominantly teaching-focused. The basic assumption of this scenario is that in massified systems, the traditional teaching-research nexus will be maintained in practice almost exclusively in the small elite sub-sector. The opportunities at the disposal of institutions will vary immensely in the future, but most importantly, qualitative distinction will be between the top 1,000 universities and the rest (comprising about 25,000-30,000 institutions). This chapter is an exercise in future scenarios writing, in which the radical consequences of the divisive impact of academic research on individuals and institutions in 20-30 years are discussed.
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This chapter addresses the impact of changes in higher education on the academic profession in the past, present and possible future. We start by arguing that the growth of the academic profession implied increased differentiation. We then examine the ongoing transformation of working and employment conditions in the academic workplace, which challenges its traditional power structure. Finally we look at the restructuring of the international academic community. One of our conclusions is that demographic changes are likely to play a minor role in the reshaping of the academic profession.
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It is widely assumed that higher education systems converge across economically advanced countries, and the term "globalisation" is often for claiming that a bundle of factors implying modernisation and worldwide competition are the drivers of convergence. Surveys of the academic profession undertaken jointly in a substantial number of countries in the 1990s and in recent years provide the opportunity of examining whether scholars at institutions at higher education note an increasing similarity of conditions and become themselves more similar in their activities. In summing up the findings, we certainly note some examples of extreme differences by country. Altogether, if we believe in a strong convergence of higher education across Europe, we could describe the academics' views and activities as substantially varied. But if the take into consideration traditional differences in the character of national higher education systems, we could consider this spread as moderate.
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The academic profession all over the world has experienced substantial and rapid changes of its societal, institutional and academic environment. The gradual move towards the knowledge society provided opportunities for a growth of the number of academics but the challenges to reconsider the professional role were by no means without any hardship. The authors of this volume address four areas of key challenges to the academic profession. What do the rising expectations to generate and disseminate relevant knowledge mean: a leap from "scholarship of discovery" to "scholarship of application" or new combinations of discovery with social, economic and cultural implications? How does internationalisation affect academics: as a step towards a cosmopolitan academic world or as localistic competition on world scale? How does the growing power of institutional management shape the academic role: Does the dependent "knowledge worker" substitute the "republic of scholars", or is there a new space for academic freedom and responsibility? What does the expansion of graduate education mean: an extension of school-type learning towards the doctorate, or an increased chance of open discourse between senior academics and academics in their formative years?