Philip G. Altbach
and Martin J. Finkelstein
Philip
G. Altbach is professor of higher education and director of the Center for
International Higher Education at Boston College. Martin J. Finkelstein is
director of the New Jersey Institute for Collegiate Teaching and Learning
and professor of education at Seton Hall University. Address: Alfieri Hall,
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 07079. Fax: (201) 761-9758
The
academic profession worldwide is faced with significant problems as we approach
the 21st century. In our view, the following issues constitute some of the
major challenges facing the American professoriate in the coming period. Similar
factors affect other countries as well.
Economic
shifts
The United States is moving from an industrial to an information-based
economy and finds itself now competing in global markets. This has placed
a premium on the preparation of a competitive work force; and colleges and
universities and their faculties will find it increasingly necessary to orient
their work, especially their teaching, to these objectives.
Technological
shifts
The past five years in particular have witnessed a revolution in the dominant
technology of academic work. Scholars increasingly rely on digital technology
for accessing information and for communicating with colleagues and students.
Teaching practices have historically proven extremely resistant to change,
but indications are that new technologies are gaining acceptance in the classroom
as well. For example, in the early 1990s, barely 10 percent of the professoriate
used digital technology in their teaching; by 1995 that figure had jumped
to 30 percent.
In the last quarter century, then, the vast majority of the American faculty
faced a bewildering mix of external forces that are already beginning to change
the rules governing academic careers and the expectations for academic work.
Thus, while American academics continue by and large to be satisfied with
their careers and the intrinsic qualities of academic work, factors such as
a move to regulate workloads, tenure reviews, static salary growth, and a
declining job market have all affected morale, and have generated a growing
list of complaints.
Current
Challenges and Future Trends
Unquestionably, the post World War II "golden age" of the professoriate is
at an end, and general conditions for the profession are changing in ways
we do not yet fully understand. The following elements are part of the equation:
- Accountability
will inevitably increase. Professors, once used to considerable autonomy
in shaping their research, teaching, and their career options, will be
increasingly constrained by the needs of employing institutions and subject
to the measurement of output. Academic labor will be more carefully monitored
and controlled.
- There will
be a greater emphasis on teaching, although research productivity will
remain the "gold standard." There has been a strong demand to reconfigure
the system of academic rewards and to "open up" the system. The quality
of teaching will be emphasized more, and it is likely that most faculty
will do more teaching. Average teaching loads will increase.
- While the
tenure system will not be abolished, it may be circumvented for many entering
the profession. It is interesting that as the demands for the abolition
of tenure that were common in the 1970 have abated, and a significant
proportion of the full-time professoriate is tenured-an artifact of the
aging of the profession-"tenure track" positions are becoming less of
the norm. The rapidly expansion of part-time faculty are untenured, and
have no possibility of regular appointments. Alternative career paths
are being proposed and even implemented. Renewable contracts and long-term
non-tenure track positions are increasingly common. It is likely that
these trends will increase as institutions strive for more flexibility
in resource allocation in the face of continued financial difficulties.
The proportion of full-time tenure-track and tenured faculty will drop.
- Pressures
to generate external funding will continue to increase, mainly in the
research university sector. Academics have been asked to obtain funds
through consulting, service to local industry and commerce, research,
and other revenue-generating schemes. As academic institutions, especially
in the public sector, find their budgets constrained, they seek other
funding sources-and this will inevitably involve the professoriate. The
demand for "university-industry linkages," common in higher education,
is a part of this trend.
- The changes
in research funding are indicative of other changes in the fiscal reality
for higher education, but indicative of other changes as well. Basic research
is less emphasized as government funding diminishes and as the quest for
"results" and immediate payoff takes precedent. For a half-century or
more, universities were seen as the home of basic research-scientific
research that would yield results in the long term but might have little
immediate benefit. Funders are now less willing to support this kind of
research. Accountability for research results is an increasing part of
the pattern.
- The academic
profession will increasingly lose power in the context of accountability
and budgetary difficulties. In a difficult job market with limited mobility
at the upper levels of the profession, academics are simply at a disadvantage.
Those who have control over the budget will gain the upper hand-senior
administrators will inevitably wield more authority, and the faculty will
have less control over the university. One of the implications of this
trend will be a lessening of autonomy.
- The differentiation
between the "haves" and the "have nots" among institutions and in the
academic profession, will continue, and perhaps even become exacerbated.
The "research cadre"- those senior professors located mainly at the top
50 to 75 American universities, with a strong commitment to research,
access to external funding, and low teaching loads-will find that their
working conditions may deteriorate modestly, but that they will be able
to continue functioning with minimal deterioration. The significant declines
will occur at the second tier institutions. It is likely that the system
will be further segmented by the expansion in the number of "non-tenure-track"
full-time contract faculty hired mainly to teach, and of the continued
growth of part-time faculty, creating a "three-class" professoriate.
- The sense
of community, on the decline since the 1950s, will further deteriorate
as the professoriate is divided demographically and by competing interests,
increasingly differentiated institutions, and other forces.
These factors do not constitute a revolution in the academic profession, and
we foresee academic life in the American university continuing on largely
as before. Yet, the pressures on the academic profession will be unprecedented
and significant change will inevitably take place. The new realities will
affect different segments of the profession in different ways-but there is
no doubt that we are in a period of challenge.