Changing Biographies and Careers of Academics

Given academics’ centrality to higher education it is natural to consider, in addition to working conditions (Locke W, Teichler U (eds). The changing conditions for academic work and careers in select countries. International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel, Kassel, 2007), their personal characteristics, career trajectories, commitment and sense of identity as strategic for understanding the academic profession in general. In understanding what and how academics do their work, as well as its relevance, it is important to describe their work, as well as pertinent organizational and meta-organizational variables in detail. In addition to these aspects it is important to consider who the academics are, where they come from and, additionally, their expectations for the future. All such aspects are important to the extent that it would be natural to expect for them to have an influence in the work done by an academic. In this paper the authors take a look, after briefly commenting their data analysis approach, at findings from the 2007 CAP survey related to two key areas of full-time academics: changing biographies and changes to their academic career.