Higher education has changed enormously in recent years. For instance, it now serves a more diverse range of students and is under closer government scrutiny and control. There is consequently a significant number of academics who are uneasy with current values and practices and who work with them reluctantly. Universities may speak publicly of efficiency and effectiveness but they cannot function successfully if their academic staff are disillusioned. Changing Academic Work explores the competing tensions in contemporary work: the need to balance individualism with collaboration; accountability with reward; a valuing of the past with preparation for the future. The aim is to help staff build a contemporary university which is as much a learning organization as an organization about learning. Elaine Martin develops a set of simple but sound principles to guide academic work and, through case study material, she provides engaging and convincing illustrations of these principles in action. She offers insight and guidance for academic staff at all levels who wish to make their working environment more satisfying and productive.

Higher education has changed enormously in recent years. For instance, it now serves a more diverse range of students and is under closer government scrutiny and control. There is consequently a significant number of academics who are uneasy with current values and practices and who work with them reluctantly. Universities may speak publicly of efficiency and effectiveness but they cannot function successfully if their academic staff are disillusioned. Changing Academic Work explores the competing tensions in contemporary work: the need to balance individualism with collaboration; accountability with reward; a valuing of the past with preparation for the future. The aim is to help staff build a contemporary university which is as much a learning organization as an organization about learning. Elaine Martin develops a set of simple but sound principles to guide academic work and, through case study material, she provides engaging and convincing illustrations of these principles in action. She offers insight and guidance for academic staff at all levels who wish to make their working environment more satisfying and productive.

This collection of 17 essays focuses on how faculty are employed, rewarded, and managed at universities in developed and developing nations. The essays, which include an introduction, 10 essays discussing European practices, two that focus on Canada and the United States, three which focus on Australia, Japan, and Malaysia, and a concluding chapter are: (1) "Managing Universities and Regulating Academic Labour Markets" (David Farnham); (2) "Belgium: Diverging Professions in Twin Communities" (Jef C. Verhoeven and Ilse Beuselinck); (3) "Finland: Searching for Performance and Flexibility" (Turo Virtanen); (4) "France: A Centrally-Driven Profession" (June Burnham); (5) "Germany: A Dual Academy" (Tassilo Herrschel); (6) "Ireland: A Two-Tier Structure" (Thomas N. Garavan, Patrick Gunnigle, and Michael Morley); (7) "Italy: A Corporation Controlling a System in Collapse" (William Brierley); (8) "The Netherlands: Reshaping the Employment Relationship" (Egbert de Weert); (9) "Spain: Old Elite or New Meritocracy?" (Salavador Parrado-Diez); (10) "Sweden: Professional Diversity in an Egalitarian System" (Berit Askling); (11) "The United Kingdom: End of the Donnish Dominion?" (David Farnham); (12) "Canada: Neo-Conservative Challenges to Faculty and Their Unions" (Donald C. Savage); (13) "The United States: Self-Governed Profession or Managed Occupation?" (Sylvia Horton); (14) "Australia: From Collegiality to Corporatism" (Robert Kelso and Christopher Leggett); (15) "Japan: Collegiality in a Paternalist System" (Kiyoshi Yamamoto); (16) "Malaysia: An Emerging Professional Group" (Mohamed Salleh Hj Din and Bala Shanmugam); and (17) "Towards the Flexi-University?" (David Farnham). Each essay includes references; contains an index.. (MDM)

The latest volume in the Routledge International Studies in Higher Education Series, Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce, reviews the implications of new forms of academic and professional identity, which have emerged largely as a result of a broadening disciplinary base and increasing permeability between higher education and external environments. The volume addresses the challenges faced by those responsible for the wellbeing of academic faculty and professional staff. International perspectives examine current practice against a background of rapidly changing policy contexts, focusing on the critical ‘people dimension’ of enhancing academic and professional activity, while also addressing national, socio-economic, and community agendas. Consideration is given to mainstream academic faculty and professional staff, researchers, library and information professionals, people with an interest in teaching and learning, and those involved in individual projects or institutional development. The following provide the key themes of Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce: The implications of diversifying academic and professional identities for the functioning of higher education institutions and sectors. The pace and nature of such change in different institutional systems and environments. The challenges to institutional systems and structures from emergent identities and possible tensions, and how these might be addressed. The implications of blurring academic and professional identities, with a shift towards mixed or ‘blended’ roles, for individual careers and institutional development.

This book focuses on strategic staff development in higher education, a sector in which it has been largely viewed as an operational activity with little organizational relevance. The book demonstrates how staff development needs to be based on modern theories of 'organizational learning', aligning itself with institutional and departmental needs as well as the wants and needs of individual staff. The book takes a broad definition of staff development and seeks to cover all aspects of the academic role and the interests of all staff. The traditional focus on teaching and learning is covered but not to the exclusion of other aspects or the interface between different roles. In order to achieve a strategic focus, authors are drawn from a range of backgrounds, including senior staff with strategic leadership roles. The book is, therefore, directed to a wider readership than the community of staff development professionals and designed partly to challenge the dominant discourse and established priorities of staff developers. Towards Strategic Staff Development in Higher Education seeks to combine scholarly review of relevent literature with practical strategies and suggestions for the intended readership, principally senior staff, heads of department and staff development professionals.

This book examines changing ways that academic work is governed—from outside and inside universities—in the shifting social, cultural and political contexts of new times. Chapters trace developments in institutions, national sectors, and internationally—all applying a global scope to identify significant shifts in the broader conditions of university operation.

This book is written for all university and college teachers interested in experimenting with discussion methods in their classrooms. Discussion as a Way of Teaching is a book full of ideas, techniques, and usable suggestions on: * How to prepare students and teachers to participate in discussion * How to get discussions started * How to keep discussions going * How to ensure that teachers' and students' voices are kept in some sort of balance It considers the influence of factors of race, class and gender on discussion groups and argues that teachers need to intervene to prevent patterns of inequity present in the wider society automatically reproducing themselves inside the discussion-based classroom. It also grounds the evaluation of discussions in the multiple subjectivities of students' perceptions. An invaluable and helpful resource for university and college teachers who use, or are thinking of using, discussion approaches.