Professorial Pathways – Academic Careers in a Global Perspective - Hardcover

Finkelstein, Martin J.; Jones, Glen A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1421428733 ISBN 13: 9781421428734

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019

Synopsis

In the twenty-first century, universities worldwide have found themselves thrust into a great "brain race" as nations, both developed and developing, seek to enhance their place in the global knowledge economy. As the concept of the de-localized university―one that has radically expanded, perhaps even beyond national borders―grows, competing nations have begun reshaping aspects of their national systems to accommodate global standards and metrics.

In Professorial Pathways, Martin J. Finkelstein and Glen A. Jones consider how academic careers vary in countries that are fundamentally different in their organization and dynamics. Building on 25 years of scholarship, the book confronts major questions: What can we learn from the experience of other nations as they seek to balance the seemingly contradictory imperatives of expanding access and ensuring global competitiveness? What are the implications of this rapidly changing policy environment for the health of the academic professions on which university teaching and scholarship depends? And how can we advance the comparative study of higher education and, in particular, of the academic profession?

The volume brings together detailed case studies of the latest―and ever-changing―educational developments in ten countries across Europe (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Russia), Asia (China, India, Japan), North America (United States, Canada), and South America (Brazil). Essays written by respected scholars in the field identify the major structural features of national higher education systems and academic markets that directly shape academic work and careers. Professorial Pathways will be of interest to anyone who toils in the vineyards of comparative and international higher education.

Contributors: Elizabeth Balbachevsky, Martin J. Finkelstein, N. Jayaram, Glen A. Jones, Barbara M. Kehm, Dan Mao, Christine Musselin, Peter Scott, Fengqiao Yan, Akiyoshi Yonezawa, Maria Yudkevich

About this title

Review:

"We often forget about the academic profession and the changing academic workplace in contemporary discussions of higher education. Professorial Pathways provides a well-researched global perspective on the academic profession. It shows how academe is changing in ten key countries and permits us to understand the key to university success everywhere―the professoriate."

(Philip G. Altbach, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, coeditor of American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges)

"Finkelstein and Jones have brought together a highly distinguished panel of scholars from around the world. Their comparisons and analyses, based on a vast reservoir of data, give us a new and valuable vista on academic careers."

(Gerard A. Postiglione, The University of Hong Kong, author of Education and Social Change in China: Inequality in a Market Economy)

"These case studies from the larger higher-education countries, together with the concluding chapter by the editors of this beautifully presented book, provide a state-of-the-art summary of the worldwide academic professions, deeply variant at the national level yet subject to common and growing pressures."

(Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, author of Higher Education and the Common Good)

Book Description:

What makes a professor? The answer depends on where in the world you are.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1421428733
• ISBN 13: 9781421428734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312