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Recent studies have highlighted the major challenges faced by managers in the higher education sector and shown the contradictory demands which foster paradoxical tensions. Previous works have also underlined some specific tensions and rigidities that business school deans regularly face in their role. Yet, few studies have empirically explored which paradoxical tensions deans face and how they cope with them. Our paper addresses this gap. Using a qualitative study, we explore the simultaneous and interrelated contradictions faced by deans in French business schools and address how they manage the tensions related to these conflictual and complicated situations. Our work reveals five main tensions that deans have to face and two individual categories of responses to these tensions. It underlines two types of cognitive mindsets (paradox mindset and dilemma mindset) adopted by deans to deal with paradoxical tensions and highlights how deans have become academic entrepreneurs with hybrid profiles in a paradoxical system.

This is a conceptual paper that examines the origin and development of universities and their current role in global society. There has been an unprecedented and exponential growth of technology and artificial intelligence capabilities over the past ten years which is challenging current working practices and affecting all areas of society. The paper examines how this role may change to match the new demands placed on them by a digitally enabled society that has greater leisure time. The design of the paper is first to detail some of the changes in work practices that are taking place and how these will impact on society. It then offers several ways in which universities could modify their role to respond to these emerging challenges. This could include new courses, new organisational structures and new pedagogical practices. The paper provides a platform for discussion and debate around the strategic vision and direction of travel for higher education.

The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students' and employers' perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft skills over the last 5-10 years and that companies consider soft skills more important than students/graduates. Furthermore, major differences have also been identified in the ranking of the 20 soft skills listed in this paper, indicating different levels of priorities. This paper suggests that companies and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to work together not only to increase students' awareness of the importance of soft skills but also to guide them in taking individual responsibility to acquire and develop these essential skills in order to continuously adapt to the changing labour market and improve their employability.

This paper presents the preliminary findings of a case study of the merger of two higher education institutions in France. The paper's main focus is not the politics that gave rise to the institutional merger, nor the rights or wrongs of the decision, nor the merger process itself; rather, it is the extent to and the ways in which these features of the transition combined to touch the working lives of the people affected by it. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 16 employees of the 2 institutions. The findings revealed widespread post-merger dissatisfaction, lowered morale, frustration and disillusionment created by people's impeded capacity to carry out their work as they wished. Drawing on Dickensian literary language to evoke the severity of the negativity expressed by most of the sample, the author suggests that, for these French education professionals, "the worst of times" may be yet to come.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out an empirical examination of the supply-side factors influencing dropout rates in MBA programs. We analyze the extent to which the resources and characteristics of the program (content, teaching methodology, course load, class size, partnerships, reputation) influence these rates. A GLM analysis was conducted on data obtained from a final sample of 94 executive MBA programs in Western Europe. The results indicate that several supply side factors significantly affect dropout: intensity of case study learning, number of credits per month, class size, and proportion of lessons given at partner institutions. Several implications for the design and management of higher education programs have been drawn from this research.

The purpose of this paper is to find out what academics do when approaching retirement, and why; as well as to reflect on the process and consequences of reaching a retirement decision -- for themselves, the university system, and the wider community. Our study concentrates on baby boomers, as this large cohort starts to retire or become eligible to do so. Employing a qualitative approach grounded in an interpretive paradigm, data collection took place during 2017-2018 using semi-structured interviews with 45 Social Science Business School academics who have worked in Anglo-Saxon and Latin European universities (the USA, the UK, Spain and France). The findings suggest four core clusters of late career trajectories, with the majority wishing, and planning, to continue work. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and suggestions for further research outlined.

The paper analyses which conditions may predict a better salary for people who got a PhD in social sciences and humanities (SS&H) in 13 European countries. Among the controlling variables, predictors are also: change of country of residence; percentage of time spent respectively in research and managerial activities; and impacts achieved during one's PhD programme. Findings, but also policy implications both for PhD programme planners and PhD candidates, are: some specific impacts such as having advised policy-makers, having released interviews to media and having managed and coordinated projects, all predict better salaries for PhD holders in SS&H, other things being equal. To move geographically out of one's country where PhD was awarded is also a good predictor of better wages, provided PhD holders do not swap sectors after attainment of PhD.

In this paper an analysis is carried out whether objective tests and subjective self-assessments in international large-scale studies yield similar results when looking at cross-national differences in the effects of skills on earnings, and skills patterns across countries, fields of study and gender. The findings indicate that subjective skills measures do not correlate well with objective measures of similar constructs when looking at cross-national differences. Countrywise associations between subjective skills measures and earnings do not correlate well with those found using objective skills measures. Moreover, cross-national differences in the level of subjective skills measures do not correlate well with cross-national differences in skill levels based on objective tests. Nor do gender differences found using subjective skills measures correlate with those found using objective skills measures. This does not mean that self-assessments cannot be used, but they need to be restricted to analysing within-country differences. Within countries, self-assessments do a good job in predicting skills differences across fields of study and also in predicting the effect of skills on earnings. When comparing gender differences in skills levels within countries, however, one needs to be aware that females tend to overestimate their skills levels in typical "female" domains like literacy.

This paper empirically examines the impact of academic research on high-tech manufacturing growth of 28 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and emerging countries over the 1991-2005 period. A standard research and development (R&D) expenditure based measure is found to be too general to capture the input in high-tech research. To overcome this problem, a novel proxy for high-tech research investment--the supercomputer capacity--is proposed. Empirical evidence strongly supports this choice of variable. It is also found that academic R&D exerts a larger growth effect on high-tech output than its industry and government counterparts, but only the impact differential between academic and government R&D is statistically significant.

This paper explores two new perspectives for the research on higher education. Building on the case of Europe with a special focus on France, it first addresses the trend toward more competition and more differentiation that can be observed in countries that traditionally were more egalitarian and the strong implication of European states in reshaping their higher education and research systems. It also questions the social role of higher education while knowledge economies are engaged in a competitive race. Finally, it looks at the capacity of higher education studies to address such issues and critically questions how should this domain further develop.

This paper explores two new perspectives for the research on higher education. Building on the case of Europe with a special focus on France, it first addresses the trend toward more competition and more differentiation that can be observed in countries that traditionally were more egalitarian and the strong implication of European states in reshaping their higher education and research systems. It also questions the social role of higher education while knowledge economies are engaged in a competitive race. Finally, it looks at the capacity of higher education studies to address such issues and critically questions how should this domain further develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conviction that higher education should be more responsive to `the community' whether regional or local, is under considerable discussion at the present time. This paper examines the changes introduced in the external and internal systems of governance in French universities as a result of the passing of the Higher Education Guideline Law of February 1984. Higher education planning in France is highly centralised, a fact that often appears contradictory to the basic objectives of the Law which, inter alia, seeks to strengthen the `local responsiveness' of French universities. After offering a brief description of the structures of French higher education, this paper examines the role and significance of the newly established bodies of governance. It concludes that continuing effective central control does not appear incompatible with developing a strategy of greater local involvement on the part of higher education in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in many countries are currently experiencing significant changes in how they are organized and managed. Consequently, exploring the kind of manager/leader behaviours that are perceived as effective and least effective/ineffective by peers, subordinates, collaborators, and team members in HEIs becomes important. Choosing a French HEI for our study and using the Critical Incident Technique, the authors conducted 37 interviews of academic/non-academic managerial/non-managerial staff to generate a total of 250 critical incidents (CIs) of observed managerial behaviour. Subjecting these CIs to open and axial coding resulted in the emergence of 17 positive and 21 negative behavioural indicators of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness. Comparing these findings with those of extant studies of HEIs from Anglo countries revealed many similarities and considerable differences. Implications are offered for leadership and management development training programmes specifically designed for members of HEIs, along with suggestions for further research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using as an analytical framework Evans's conceptualisation of professionalism, this article examines the implications for academic professionalism in the French higher education sector of reforms and significant changes that have evolved over the last few decades, including: theInvestissements d'Avenirprogramme, theLoi de programme pour la recherche, theloi relative aux libertés et responsabilités des universités, increasing massification, and the drive to boost undergraduate student retention. Drawing upon comparative cases of parallel changes to higher education in other national contexts, and identifying changes to academic professionalism in relation to Evans's three components (behavioural, attitudinal and intellectual), and 11 dimensions, of professionalism, the authors sketch out the ‘shape’ and outline the nature of a new academic professionalism that they believe has been set in motion and that they envisage evolving in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]