The academic profession and its changing environments

Abstract

This chapter discusses the future of the academic profession based on the CAP data and previous studies. One major environmental change is managerial reforms under the neo-liberalism. At the same time, the reforms affect academics’ teaching, research, and service activities, e.g., the division of labor between academics on these three functions. In addition, their job satisfaction is declining and their job stress is increasing with the fragmentation of their academic works. In the future, this fragmentation will be accelerated by global competition, and an academic job may not differ much from other professional jobs. As a result, the author predicts that academics will move into various different roles, and over time the differences between academics and other professionals will gradually be reduced.