This study explores how policy discourses on academic career are articulated in Swedish higher education. Discourses on academic career are often expressing meritocracy and the necessity of competition, but also include demands for flexibility and global participation. Recent decades of higher education policy have also stressed the importance of…

In universities, being mobile and international has become ever more important for academics' career prospects. This article explores junior and other insecurely employed researchers' experiences of geographical mobility in relation to their personal life, career, employability and value as scholars. The aim is to discover the gendered strategies…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the key aspects of the demographic characteristics and motivations of Chinese faculty at Japanese universities. Design/Approach/Methods: Main methods include an analysis of relevant data from a national survey of full-time international faculty in Japan in 2017 and results from semi-structured…

The last twenty years have seen an increased emphasis around the world on the quality and quantity of research in response to national research assessments, international league tables, and changes in government funding. The prevailing attitude in higher education embeds research as the 'gold standard' in the context of academic activity. However,…

In this paper we critically examine the research landscape in South Africa. We do this by documenting the progression and transformation of the country's National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researchers from 2005 to 2015. Results indicate that most NRF-rated researchers in South Africa are white and male but this trend is slowly changing with…

Research excellence has been the main thrust of higher education reforms in several countries, but its translation into coherent policies has proved to be controversial. Literature has delved into the role exerted by contextual factors and individual characteristics in the adoption of behaviours inspired by social values. Our study aims at…

The competitive university has brought about changes in structural conditions and created contradictions which are embedded in institutions. The present study is based on interviews with 42 early career researchers in the field of education sciences in Sweden. We analyse how members of this group handle career possibilities and limitations in…

In this article, the authors report on a tested workload intervention, faculty work activity dashboards, to enhance transparency and reduce ambiguity. This intervention is part of the Faculty Workload and Rewards Project (FWRP), a National Science Foundation-funded, action-research project designed to improve equity in how faculty workload is…

The term 'large group process' (LGP) refers to a range of participatory approaches to community engagement, geared towards exploring and/or identifying solutions to shared issues and problems, and planning change. Primarily used for applied purposes, they can be also used as a method of inductive inquiry in social research, particularly within…

This article analyses the determinants of job satisfaction amongst Spanish academics, paying particular attention to the impact of research productivity and differences across graduation cohorts. Research productivity is a very relevant factor in explaining job satisfaction in academics in different stages of their career. Interesting differences…

This study examines select demographics of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Fellows (n = 644), and whether or not the cohorts of AERA Fellows are becoming more diverse in racial and gender terms in relation to the inaugural year of Fellows in 2008. This study tests the mission statement of this exclusive program to "……

Academic work in Sweden's higher education system is changing character. Distinctly different career pathways are emerging, as facilities for developing research careers and capital have become both more restricted and more dependent on external funding. These developments are in focus in the present article. Based on ethnographic research and a…

The number of dual career couples in academia is growing due to the increasing proportion of women with a doctoral degree and the greater propensity of women to choose another academic as their partner. At the same time, international mobility is required for career advancement in academia, creating challenges for dual career couples where both…

Research has been valued and given priority over teaching for a long time in academia. In recent decades, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education has pursued objective and quantitative research criteria and has encouraged higher education institutions to ask teachers to publish papers in SSCI or SCI journals as part of the criteria for promotion and…

Managerialism and neoliberal changes and demands influence the work and family lives of academics differently in different positions and contexts. In this article, I explore how Finnish academics on short fixed-term contracts have been treated, and how they interpret recent changes and their effects on their work and private lives. I ask how the…