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Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction Amongst Australian University Academics and Future Workforce Implications

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Job Satisfaction around the Academic World

Abstract

Australian academics appear to be fairly critical when it comes to their valuing of the attractiveness of the academic profession. On the set of indicators constructed for this volume, Australians, together with their British colleagues, score the lowest. This chapter provides some possible explanations for this, drawing on the policy reforms that have confronted the sector over the last two decades. It also highlights a particular feature of the current profession that so far has not received much attention internationally, namely, its substantive use of casuals in both teaching and research. Combining these issues and trends with the imminent retirement of large groups of senior academics, this chapter concludes with a series of strategies that could be implemented to increase the attractiveness of the profession.

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5434-8_14

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. L.H. Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Peter James Bentley, Hamish Coates, Leo Goedegebuure & V. Lynn Meek

  2. Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Melbourne, Australia

    Hamish Coates

  3. Higher Education Governance and Management Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Ian R. Dobson

  4. School of Education and Arts, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia

    Ian R. Dobson

Authors
  1. Peter James Bentley
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  2. Hamish Coates
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  3. Ian R. Dobson
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  4. Leo Goedegebuure
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  5. V. Lynn Meek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ian R. Dobson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LH Martin Institute for Higher Education, Swanston Street 715, Carlton, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Peter James Bentley

  2. LH Martin Institute for Higher Education, Swanston Street 715, Carlton, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    Hamish Coates

  3. Wingrove St. 174, Fairfield, 3078, Victoria, Australia

    Ian R Dobson

  4. LH Martin Institute for Higher Education, Swanston St 715, Carlton, 3052, Victoria, Australia

    Leo Goedegebuure

  5. LH Martin Institute for Higher Education, Swanston St 715, Carlton, 3010, Victoria, Australia

    V Lynn Meek

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Bentley, P.J., Coates, H., Dobson, I.R., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, V.L. (2013). Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction Amongst Australian University Academics and Future Workforce Implications. In: Bentley, P., Coates, H., Dobson, I., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, V. (eds) Job Satisfaction around the Academic World. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5434-8_3

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