Abstract
This paper explores the transformation of academic recruitment in Switzerland by focusing on structures and processes observed through their actor configuration. As the so-called collegial department model is increasingly overlapping with the traditional chair system, variations in practices are detectable according to disciplines and types of institutions. Based on qualitative data gathered in the framework of the ESF EuroAC project, this research shows, on the one side, how traditionally differentiated academic recruitment practices tend to converge through standardization and, on the other side, how differences between universities, institutes of technology and universities of applied sciences as well as differences among disciplines – e.g. hard-soft – impact on pace and depth of such change.
This paper is partly based on the EuroAC ESF research funded for the Helvetic side by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
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Notes
- 1.
Universities of Applied Sciences are composed of several institutions that are located in several cantons. For example, the UAS of Western Switzerland regroups 27 schools located in seven cantons. This institutional architecture explains the difference observed in terms of numbers of professors when compared with universities.
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Fumasoli, T., Goastellec, G. (2015). Recruitment of Academics in Switzerland: e pluribus unum?. In: Teichler, U., Cummings, W. (eds) Forming, Recruiting and Managing the Academic Profession. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16080-1_8
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