Academic Staff

2017

Chapter 2: Academics and their Qualifications 2.1. Doctoral degree: a starting point of an academic career? 2.2. Qualification requirements within academic careers Conclusions Chapter 3: The Recruitment of Academic Staff 3.1. Top-level authorities' legislation on recruitment of academic staff 3.2. Recruitment methods 3.3. Recruitment process 3.4. Equal opportunities 3.5. Recruitment management Conclusions Chapter 4: Employment and Working Conditions in Academia 4.1. Employment conditions in academia 4.2. Duties and working time of academic staff 4.3. Remuneration of academic staff 4.4. Continuing professional development (CPD) of academic staff 4.5. Monitoring of employment and working conditions in academia Conclusions Chapter 5: Quality Assurance and Evaluation of Academic Staff 5.1. The European context for quality assurance 5.2. External quality assurance 5.3. Individual evaluation of academic staff Conclusions Chapter 6: Internationalisation and Staff Mobility 6.1. Top-level strategies for the internationalisation of higher education 6.2. Top-level monitoring of staff mobility 6.3. Top-level support for specific actions related to internationalisation Conclusions Modernis ation of Higher Educ ation in Europe: Ac ademic Staff-4 Annexes Annex 1: National diagrams of academic staff categories Sources of statistical data included in national diagrams Annex 2: Examples of large-scale programmes for academic staff mobility References Glossary Acknowledgements This report aims to provide insight into the realities faced by higher education academic staff at a time of fast-moving change and increasing societal demand. Fluctuating student numbers, new funding and steering mechanisms are among the features of today's European higher education landscape, but not enough is known about how academic staff are affected by such changes. As academic staff are vital for the success of higher education, this report places them centre stage. The report is divided into six chapters. An introductory chapter provides contextual information on the higher education environment. Subsequent chapters examine the qualification requirements for academic staff, the recruitment process, employment and working conditions in academia, external quality assurance procedures, and top-level strategies for internationalisation. The report also includes national diagrams showing key characteristics of academic staff categories. The report draws on several data sources. It is based mainly on qualitative data gathered from the Eurydice National Units. This has been complemented by a range of research reports, as well as by reports and databases produced by international organisations. Information has also been collected through surveys to academic staff trade unions and quality assurance agencies. Alongside qualitative information, some chapters also include statistical data from international surveys and databases. These main findings highlight key issues for consideration by policy makers. Academic staff are a heterogeneous group in European higher education  The degree of difference in academic staff categories from one country to another is a striking feature of the European higher education landscape. The national diagrams annexed to this report, while aiming to make national categories comparable, also reveal a wide range of distinctions and national variations (see Annex 1).  Academic staff can be differentiated by a number of features: their main activities (teaching and research; teaching only or research only), the type of institution in which they work (university of other higher education institution), their contractual status (indefinite or fixed-term contracts) as well as their integration or not within a clearly defined career path (see Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and Annex 1).  The extent to which top-level authorities monitor employment and working conditions of academics varies from one country to another-some top-level authorities monitoring a wider range of aspects compared to others (see Chapter 4, Section 4.5, Figure 4.8).  There is also a lack of comparable European statistics on academic employment and working conditions, including on staff contracts and on the proportion of staff working in externally-funded positions. Establishing comparable data in these areas would require an investment in the development of commonly shared concepts and definitions (see Chapter 4, Sections 4.1.1 and 4.5). Content of the report The report is structured in six chapters: Chapter 1 provides contextual information that aims to help the reader to understand the environment in which academic staff in Europe operate today. Background statistical indicators set the scene for qualitative investigation in the comparative report. The statistical data focuses on participation of students and staff, and the characteristics of the academic staff body, while qualitative indicators capture issues relating to higher education governance. Chapter 2 examines qualification requirements of academic staff. Following a career development perspective, the chapter starts by looking at the doctoral degree, enquiring about the status of doctoral candidates, the role of the doctorate in an academic career and the content of doctoral training. It then considers career progression in academia, looking, in particular, at procedures through which academics become recognised members of their community. Chapter 3 deals with the recruitment of academic staff. It examines the scope and coverage of legislation on the matter, the main methods used for recruitment, selected aspects of the recruitment process, and the degree of involvement of top-level authorities. (1) Launched in 2011 by the Commission's Communication 'Supporting growth and jobs-An Agenda for the Modernisation of Europe's Higher Education Systems' (European Commission, 2011a). (2) Including in line with the 'European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their Recruitment'.

Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 1999

Academic medicine plays an essential role in the organization of health care in the European Union. Academic hospitals have been the mecca for advanced medicine. Academic hospitals dier from country to country. Some are public institutions and others are largely private hospitals. Financial pressures on patient care are now threatening research activities in the university hospitals and universities have a responsibility to safeguard the structure of clinical academic obstetrics and gynaecology. In many European teaching hospitals, little importance is placed on research and the academic posts are a mechanism for developing private practice.

Higher Education, 1997

Interest in the status and functions, the potential and the vulnerability of the academic profession has grown in recent times. International comparison is of special interest in this context: are the problems experienced more or less universal, or are there options and conditions in individual countries which might suggest solutions for the future? The paper analyses some findings and implications of the 'International Survey of the Academic Profession' with a special focus on the various subgroups of academics in the European countries involved in this empirical study. The analyses focuses on the employment and working conditions, as well as the way academics handle their various professional tasks and functions. Considerable differences between the university professoriate, middle-rank and junior staff at universities and staff at other institutions of higher education are noted. At least in the majority of European countries surveyed, one would hesitate to consider them part of the same profession. By and large, however, the relatively independent nature of their jobs allows most academics to find areas of professional activity which are the source of professional attachment and satisfaction.

Journal of Higher Education, 2002

Higher Education, 2001

Recent changes in national legal agreements concerning appointment, promotion and working conditions have affected the work of academics in Swedish higher education. The current structure of the higher education system, descriptive data on working conditions, and institutional governance form the background for discussing academic autonomy and the academic profession in the future.

European Review, 2010

Despite the tendency to create a European Higher Education and Research area, academic systems are still quite different across Europe. We selected five countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway and the UK) to investigate how the differences have an impact on a number of aspects of the working conditions of academic staff. One crucial aspect is the growing diversification of professional activity: reduction of tenured and tenure tracked position, the growing number of fixed-term contracts for both teaching and research, including the growing recruitment of academic staff from external professional fields. These changes are connected with the changing functions of higher education systems and signal the growing openness of higher education institutions to their outside social and economic environment. To understand these trends one has to take into consideration the different degree in which systems distinguish between teaching and research functions. A second aspect has to do with ...

Journal of Higher Education, 2002

In: U. Teichler and E.A. Höhle (eds.), The Work Situation of the Academic Profession 37 in Europe: Findings of a Survey in Twelve Countries, Springer Dordrecht , 2013

In this analysis of changing academic work, working conditions and job satisfaction in Europe, we present the academics’ assessment of facilities, resources and personnel. Subsequently, an overview will be provided about the academic workload and allocation of time between the four major types of academic activities: teaching, research, service and administration. A further section will discuss job satisfaction and academics’ income. This chapter provides a general picture of the variety of views and activities in 12 European countries, where differences between junior and senior academic staff and between academics at universities and at other higher education institutions are presented, whenever relevant. As will be shown below, the facilities and resources are predominantly assessed positively by European academics, with the least positive scores for research funding. Hence, the ratings of those at universities are more positive than of those at other higher education institutions. We also note substantial differences in the assessments of junior and senior academics. Assessments are by and large most positive in Finland, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands. Self-declared hours spent on academic work vary as well between European countries, between junior and senior academics and between academics at universities and academics at other higher education institutions. The longest hours spent at work in higher education institutions (when classes are in session) are reported, on average, by all academics in Ireland, Italy and Poland and the shortest in the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal. The weekly mean time ranges from 27 h per week (junior staff in Norway) to 52 h per week (senior staff in Germany). Senior staff works longer hours than junior staff in all countries.

2017