The Decline of the Guru

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Centers and Peripheries in the Academic Profession: The Special Challenges of Developing Countries

   • Philip G. Altbach

   Pages 1-21

3. Big City Love: The Academic Workplace in Mexico

   • Manuel Gil-Antón

   Pages 23-50

4. Universities and Professors in Argentina: Changes and Challenges

   • Carlos Marquis

   Pages 51-73

5. The Changing Academic Workplace in Brazil

   • Elizabeth Balbachevsky, Maria Conceição da Quinteiro

   Pages 75-106

6. The Academic Profession in China

   • Xiangming Chen

   Pages 107-134

7. The Academic Profession in Malaysia and Singapore: Between Bureaucratic and Corporate Cultures

   • Molly N. N. Lee

   Pages 135-165

8. The Changing Academic Workplace in Korea

   • Sungho H. Lee

   Pages 167-198

9. The Fall of the Guru: The Decline of the Academic Profession in India

   • N. Jayaram

   Pages 199-230

10. The Academic Workplace in Public Arab Gulf Universities

    • André Elias Mazawi

    Pages 231-269

11. The Academic Workplace in a Changing Environment: The Nigerian Scene

    • Monica Iyegumwena Barrow, Fidelma Ekwutozia Ukeje

    Pages 271-296

12. Challenges and Pressures Facing the Academic Profession in South Africa

    • Charlton Koen

    Pages 297-324

13. Back Matter

    Pages 325-338

    PDF

The academic profession faces new challenges everywhere. The pressures of mass higher education, accountability, fiscal constraints, distance education and the new technologies, and changing attitudes concerning academic work have combined to place unprecedented strains on the professoriate. There is no country that has avoided these challenges, although the changes vary. This book brings together some of the best analysts of the academic profession in a wide ranging comparative analysis of the changing academic workplace. The stress here is on middle income and developing countries, but the issues discussed are relevant everywhere. This book, precisely because of its comparative and international perspective, is useful worldwide. Among the topics considered in the case study chapters are: - The changing demographics of the academic profession, including the role of gender in the professoriate - New developments in academic appointments, including the terms of academic work, evaluation of professors, and the tenure system - External pressures on the academic profession, including demands for accountability, threats to academic freedom, and others - The changing nature of academic work, including patterns of teaching and evaluation of students and increases in teaching responsibilities - The role of research in a changing academic environment - The impact of the new technologies and distance education - Future prospects for the professoriate.

• education
• evaluation
• higher education
• teaching
• structural geology

• Chestnut Hill, USA

  Philip G. Altbach

Philip G. Altbach is J. Donald Monan, S. J. University Professor and Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, USA. He has been distinguished scholar leader of the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program. He is co-author of Trends in Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution.

Policies and ethics