The Decline of the Guru

The Academic Profession in Developing and Middle-Income Countries

P. Altbach

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781403982568
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

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.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Centers and Peripheries in the Academic Profession: The Special Challenges of Developing Countries
• 2 Big City Love: The Academic Workplace in Mexico
• 3 Universities and Professors in Argentina: Changes and Challenges
• 4 The Changing Academic Workplace in Brazil
• 5 The Academic Profession in China
• 6 The Academic Profession in Malaysia and Singapore: Between Bureaucratic and Corporate Cultures
• 7 The Changing Academic Workplace in Korea
• 8 The Fall of the Guru: The Decline of the Academic Profession in India
• 9 The Academic Workplace in Public Arab Gulf Universities
• 10 The Academic Workplace in a Changing Environment: The Nigerian Scene
• 11 Challenges and Pressures Facing the Academic Profession in South Africa
• About the Authors
• Index