Abstract
The Australian higher education sector has changed markedly over the past two decades, and this chapter examines these changes through the eyes of university academics. Student enrollments have increased by 130%, but public funding and teaching staff numbers have failed to keep pace. In Australia, the major dividing line across universities still is their research intensiveness. Therefore, we explore whether change is experienced differently by those working in the major research universities (the self-designated Group of Eight – the Go8) compared with those in the less research-intensive universities. On many fronts, there is little difference in the opinions expressed by academics from the two blocs, but Go8 academics perceive a lesser degree of “being managed” than their counterparts from other universities do, and a greater degree of satisfaction with working conditions, combined with a stronger focus on research.
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Coates, H., Dobson, I.R., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, V.L. (2011). Australia: The Changing Academic Profession – An enCAPsulation. In: Locke, W., Cummings, W., Fisher, D. (eds) Changing Governance and Management in Higher Education. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1140-2_7
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