Merger mania? The Finnish higher education experience
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Mergers in higher education : the experience from Northern Europe p. 59-72
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Publishing and presenting: A cross-national analysis of engineering academics in Europe
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 15, no. 3 (2013), p. 148-154
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) survey was used to compare several measures of research output in participating European countries. When looking at the output of books, articles, reports and conference presentations, results indicated variations between countries and between the engineering field of education and other fields of education. European university engineering academics produced relatively more research reports/monographs written for a funded project, but tended to produce at lower rates than academics overall in the other three forms of written research output. © WIETE 2013.
Time is on my side : How do engineering academics spend their days - an international study
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education Vol. 10, no. 3 (2012), p. 184-191
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- Description: This article uses empirical data from the international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) survey to establish similarities and differences in work patterns among the world's academic engineers. Overall working hours and the distribution of work between teaching, research and other activities are examined. Summary results indicate that in periods when classes are in session, engineering academics from South Korea and Hong Kong reported a longer working week than equivalent staff from other countries. Engineering academics from Mexico and South Africa spent the highest proportion of their time on teaching, whereas those from Argentina, China and Italy spent the highest proportion on research. The most likely reason for international differences in the length of the working week is that national systems (such as higher education) have been constructed from the individual histories and cultures in each country. © 2012 WIETE.
- Description: 2003010832
Is there a conflict between teaching and research? the views of engineering academics in Europe
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 15, no. 2 (2013), p. 75-81
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- Description: This article presents an analysis of data from the international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) and the Academic Profession in Europe: Response to Societal Changes (EUROAC) surveys to compare engineering academics that prefer teaching over research, and vice versa. It also highlights the attitudes of each of these groups to teaching and research, the two major academic activities. There has long been debate about whether research and teaching are mutual activities or in competition with each other. According to the survey results, the majority stated a leaning towards research, but this preference was stronger in some countries than in others. In fact, data from the CAP survey reveal that 30% of engineering academics from the 12 participating European countries believe that teaching and research are hardly compatible with each other, but opinions from different countries vary considerably. Even though much higher proportions of academics agree that their research reinforces teaching, even on this measure, there are considerable gaps between countries. © WIETE 2013.
- Description: 2003011212
Changing employment and working conditions
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian , Wikström, Janne
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Academic Work and Careers in Europe : Trends, Challenges, Perspectives p. 95-115
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This chapter considers the academic working environment in eight European countries and reports on academics' impressions of the changes that environment has undergone in recent years. We focus on the extent to which the content of academic work in these countries is similar or different; the nature of academics' working conditions and how they have changed; and what academics' affiliations are. The analysis also considers differences according to seniority. Based on interviews with European academics, we consider how changes in working conditions, employment and modes of operation have affected scholarly work and related activities, and the impact change has had on academic freedom. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
Academics under pressure : Fear and loathing in finnish universities?
- Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession p. 211-223
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This chapter presents an examination of Finnish university academics and the pressures they encounter in the rapidly changing academic milieu. In addition to the evolution all societies are subject to, staff in Finnish universities has had to adjust to a Universities Act that came into force from 2010, and this ushered in fundamental changes in governance arrangements and confirmed a pattern of increasing managerialism. Evidence indicates that many academics feel little capacity to influence decision making, and some are trapped in a cycle of precarious employment by oft-renegotiated short contracts. In addition, universities find themselves in competition with other labour market segments for highly qualified knowledge workers, a factor which has the capacity to have an impact on universities and their academic workforce. Using quantitative data from the Changing Academic Profession survey and augmenting this with qualitative data from the EUROAC project, this chapter examines Finnish university academics perceptions of academic life in the twenty-first century. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
- Description: This chapter presents an examination of Finnish university academics and the pressures they encounter in the rapidly changing academic milieu. In addition to the evolution all societies are subject to, staff in Finnish universities has had to adjust to a Universities Act that came into force from 2010, and this ushered in fundamental changes in governance arrangements and confirmed a pattern of increasing managerialism. Evidence indicates that many academics feel little capacity to influence decision making, and some are trapped in a cycle of precarious employment by oft-renegotiated short contracts. In addition, universities find themselves in competition with other labour market segments for highly qualified knowledge workers, a factor which has the capacity to have an impact on universities and their academic workforce. Using quantitative data from the Changing Academic Profession survey and augmenting this with qualitative data from the EUROAC project, this chapter examines Finnish university academics’ perceptions of academic life in the twenty-first century. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
Academic job satisfaction from an international comparative perspective
- Authors: Bentley, Peter , Coates, Hamish , Dobson, Ian , Goedegebuure, Leo , Meek, Lynn
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession p. 187-209
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This chapter examines academic job satisfaction and factors associated with higher levels of satisfaction in the 19 CAP countries. Job satisfaction varies considerably across countries, both in term of overall satisfaction and its components. Academics tend to be most positive regarding their career choice, whilst holding negative views on the current prospects for newer entrants. Utilising Hagedorn's (Conceptualizing faculty job satisfaction: components, theories, and outcomes. In: Hagedorn LS (ed) New directions for institutional research, vol 2000. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 5-20, 2000) Conceptual Framework for Academic Job Satisfaction, we find job satisfaction is related most strongly to perceptions of adequate institutional resources, supportive administrative processes and perceived departmental influence. However, the relative strength of the independent variables varies considerably across countries. The proportion of variance in job satisfaction explained by the model also varies, with greater explanatory value in the English-speaking countries. Although the diversity in job satisfaction and its correlates may be an accurate reflection of cross-national and intercultural differences, one must be cautious about measurement error associated with the translation and interpretation of terms in different contexts. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.
University staffing: Do we have the right blend?
- Authors: Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Tertiary Education and Management Conference 2012 p. 79-89
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The number of equivalent full time students at Australian universities doubled between 1990 and 2010. However, the number of teachers increased by only 44 per cent, and nearly 60 per cent of that growth comprised staff employed on short-term casual contracts. Casual teachers now represent a quarter of all academic teachers. In this paper, it is argued that the nature of change in the higher education system has created a situation in which the staffing blend is less than optimal. Too few resources go into funding permanent teaching posts, and too many resources must be used to administer an increasingly bureaucratic and layered system. This situation has arisen for a number of reasons, including fundamental changes to the structure of ‘work’ within universities. However, more than 20 years of under-funding, poor government policies in general and acquiescence by universities to those policies have exacerbated the situation.
Using data and experts to make the wrong decision: The rise and fall of journal ranking in Australia
- Authors: Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Using Data to Improve Higher Education: Research, Policy and Practice p. 229-242
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Managing Australian universities is far more complex than in the past. Universities now have to deal with a massified student body, competition for students and funding, government pressures to diversify their funding base and demands for accountability. In the modern world, universities have sought to be attractive to students, improve their operations, develop and protect their brand, and optimize their place in world university league tables.
It's a man's world : The academic staff gender disparity in engineering in 21st Century Australia
- Authors: Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Global Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 14, no. 3 (2012), p. 213-218
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- Description: This article examines the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in the 21st Century through an analysis of Australian university staff statistics. The proportion of female academics in engineering is rising, but at a slow rate. In addition, women are more likely to be in junior classifications and less likely to be tenured than their male colleagues. Female engineering academics also tend to be younger than their male counterparts. Although the proportion of the engineering academic workforce made up by women is likely to increase beyond the current rate of about 16%, it will be a long time before engineering ceases to be a male-dominated discipline. © WIETE 2012.
At last count : Engineering undergraduates in 21st Century Australia
- Authors: Dobson, Ian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education Vol. 10, no. 4 (2013), p. 253-257
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- Description: The number of enrolments in undergraduate programmes in engineering has grown at more than the national average this century. The main areas of enrolment growth in Australian higher education have been of women and overseas students, and the latter group has been particularly relevant in the case in engineering. The analysis undertaken for this article is based on statistical data from the ministry responsible for Australia's tertiary education. However, women remain underrepresented in engineering programmes, and there is a risk that the high proportion of overseas students means that Australia is exporting engineering talent at a cost to the development of its own knowledge-intensive labour force. © 2012 WIETE.
- Description: 2003010825