engleski

The Academic Profession in Europe: Changes and Challenges

In the past two decades, discussion about higher education issues, triggered by the changes in the higher education systems, have intensified in the wider public, as well as in scientific, professional and political circles. Issues of special focus are the increase of the number of students, strong internationalisation, examination of social and economic roles, strong pressure from the sector of industry, increased competition, changes in leadership and the influence of new technologies (Altbach, 2000, Kelly and Murphy, 2007). Mentioned changes have a strong influence on the transformation of members of the academic profession, their everyday tasks and activities. Boyer, Altbach and Whitelaw (1994) stress that academic profession is developing into a “profession under pressure”. Henkel (2007, 196) warns that the age we live in is “...the age of high insecurity of the academic profession”. This paper will illustrate the results of qualitative research that aimed to establish how academics in Europe perceive changes in their work environment and analyse their connection with the redistribution of existing and the emergence of new tasks. The research was conducted in 8 European countries – Austria, Finland, Croatia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. The study included 497 participants. Research results point to changes in the tasks of academics, as well as to the emergence of new tasks in the context of their everyday professional duties. This work will analyse the challenges of these new tasks that members of the academic community in Europe are facing.

academic profession ; changes in academic profession ; challenges of academic profession

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