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Key Challenges to the Academic Profession

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Key Challenges to the Academic Profession Published with support from the UNESCO Forum for Higher Education, Research and Knowledge 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 chal- lenges to the academic profession. What do the rising ex- pectations to generate and disseminate relevant knowledge mean: a leap from “scholarship of discovery” to “scholarship 65 WERKSTATTBERICHTE of application” or new combinations of discovery with social, economic and cultural implications? How does internation- alisation affect academics: as a step towards a cosmopolitan academic world or as localistic competition on world scale? Maurice Kogan How does the growing power of institutional management and shape the academic role: Does the dependent “knowledge Ulrich Teichler worker” substitute the “republic of scholars”, or is there a new (eds.) 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 Key Challenges to chance of open discourse between senior academics and the Academic Profession academics in their formative years? The papers comprised in this volume were presented to a workshop held on 5– 6 September 2006 in Kassel, Germany. It was initiated and supported by the Regional Scientifi c Com- mittee Europe and North America of the UNESCO Forum for Higher Education, Research and Knowledge, jointly prepared with scholars collaborating in the international comparative survey “The Changing Academic Profession” scheduled for 2007, and locally organized by the International Centre for Higher Education Research, University of Kassel. The authors addressed the challenges named both comparatively and with emphasis on the experiences from their countries. ISBN: 978-3-934377-59-2 UNESCO FORUM on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge Maurice Kogan Ulrich Teichler (eds.) Key Challenges to the Academic Profession WERKSTATTBERICHTE Maurice Kogan Ulrich Teichler (eds.) Key Challenges to the Academic Profession UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel INCHER-Kassel Paris and Kassel 2007 WERKSTATTBERICHTE - 65 This publication comprises the papers presented to a workshop held on 5-6 September 2006 in Kassel, Germany. It was initiated by the Regional Scientific Committee for Europe and North America of the UNESCO Forum for Higher Education, Research and Knowledge. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the UNESCO and do not commit the Organisation. Copyright © 2007 UNESCO Forum on Higher Education Research and Knowledge / International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel at the University of Kassel Access is provided to the electronic version of this publication at: http://www.uni-kassel.de/incher/v_pub/cap1.pdf WERKSTATTBERICHTE Editor: International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER-Kassel) University of Kassel Mönchebergstraße 17, 34109 Kassel Germany http://www.uni-kassel.de/incher/ Assistant to the Editor: Christiane Rittgerott Printing: Druckwerkstatt Bräuning + Rudert GbR, Espenau ISBN: 3-928172-XXXXXXXXX Verlag Jenior, Lassallestr. 15, 34119 Kassel, Germany Content Foreword 7 Mary-Louise Kearney 1. Key Challenges to the Academic Profession and its Interface with Management: Some Introductory Thoughts Maurice Kogan and Ulrich Teichler 9 I THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION AND THE INCREASING EXPECTATION OF RELEVANCE 2. The Academic Profession and Increasing Expectations of Relevance John Brennan 19 3. Reflections on the Changing Relevance of the Academic Profession in Japan Akira Arimoto 29 4. The Increasing Expectation of Relevance for Higher Education and the Academic Profession: Some Reflections on the Case of Mexico Jesús Francisco Galaz-Fontes, Laura Padilla-González and Manuel Gil-Antón 49 II INTERNATIONALISATION AS A CHALLENGE TO THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION 5. Internationalisation of Higher Education and the Australian Academic Profession V. Lynn Meek 65 6 Key Challenges to the Academic Profession 6. Challenges of Internationalization of Higher Education and Changes in the Academic Profession: A Perspective from Japan Futao Huang 81 7. Challenges of Internationalization for the Academic Profession in Norway Agnete Vabø 99 III THE CHANGING ROLE OF GRADUATE/DOCTORAL EDUCATION, TRAINING AND WORK AS A CHALLENGE TO THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION 8. The Changing Role of Graduate and Doctoral Education as a Challenge to the Academic Profession: Europe and North America Compared Barbara M. Kehm 111 9. Challenges on the Academic Profession Development Posed by the Changing Doctoral Education in China Hong Shen 125 10. The “New” Look of Academic Careers in the United States Martin J. Finkelstein 145 IV MANAGEMENT AND ITS INTERFACE WITH THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION 11. The Academic Profession and its Interface with Management Maurice Kogan 159 12. Transformation of Academic Work: Facts and Analysis Christine Musselin 175 13. Shifting Boundaries and the Academic Profession Mary Henkel 191 List of Contributors 205 Foreword The UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Knowledge and Research is pleased to present the publication, entitled Key Challenges to the Academic Profession. Edited by two celebrated academics, the late Professor Maurice Kogan (United Kingdom) and Professor Ulrich Teichler (Germany), this volume emanates from an experts’ workshop on the subject hosted by the International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER-Kassel) at Kassel University, Germany, in Sep- tember 2006. First and foremost, it is appropriate to situate this publication to the aims of UNESCO Forum and, thus, to contextualize the specific issues related to the aca- demic profession. The UNESCO Forum focuses on the role and status of national research sys- tems and international trends in this domain in relation to the challenges posed by the Knowledge Society of the 21st century. Located at UNESCO and supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida), the UNESCO Forum provides a platform for researchers, policymakers and relevant stakeholders to engage critically with the key elements unpinning research systems: policy trends, infrastructure, human capacity, and investment. This project has assured follow up action for two major UNESCO conferences, the 1998 World Conference on Higher Education and the 1999 World Conference on Science, and links closely to the intergovernmental programme for the Management of Social Transformation (MOST), located in the Sector of Social and Human Sciences. Since 2001, the UNESCO Forum has consolidated its efforts to bridge research and policy in a number of ways through facilitating and broadening the space for critical debate and through revisiting the established and dominant views so as to reconceptualize future directions. To date, its various components for attaining these goals - mobilizing experts, stimulating global and regional debate, producing and disseminating research, promoting strategic partnerships, facilitating communica- tion, and strengthening the systemic approach – have yielded creditable results. The UNESCO Forum believes that it is central to reaffirm the importance of research at the current moment given the rapid developments since 2000 in knowledge produc- tion and management and their ramifications for social change and progress. Re- search on research has become, therefore, even more crucial and is now well re- cognized as a major field of enquiry for international organizations, charged with advising their member states about the questions involved. In this regard, the World Bank and the OECD are key partners of the UNESCO Forum. The UNESCO Forum pursues a systemic approach to the analysis of research so as to address strengths and weakness, as well as specific issues and concerns, in a critical manner. This work will embrace research and in both industrialized and 8 Foreword emerging contexts, as well as researchers whether reputed or at the start of their careers. The central objective is to promote ongoing research and to place signifi- cant results in the public eye. Consequently, research may be more original, inno- vative and effective, thus leading towards more sustainable human development. Today, unprecedented emphasis is being placed on research as key motor for advancing the knowledge society and its offspring, the knowledge economy. Con- sequently, “research on the state of research” has moved high on the priority a- gendas for governments, for their specialized agencies and bodies devoted to this area, and for higher education institutions. Thus, it becomes essential to map and analyse systems to acquire an understanding of their functioning and of their futu- re requirements. This systemic approach necessitates the study of specific issues arising from the various areas involved. In this regard, the current status of the academic pro- fession and its challenges merit serious actual and forward-looking analysis. The present publication focuses on four major areas: the increasing expectation of relevance in higher education teaching, training and research, internationalizati- on, the changing role of graduate
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