The Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) in Hiroshima University started a program of research on the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) in 2005. This research is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science as a grant-in-aid for scientific research headed by Professor Akira Arimoto, Director of the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hijiyama University and Professor-Emeritus of Hiroshima University. Before the conference in 2009, they had already held three international conferences in this topic. The fourth conference was held in Hiroshima in January 2009. This conference was organized by RIHE in cooperation with Hijiyama University, Japan. The conference addressed issues concerning the following three specific themes: (1) Internationalization of the profession; (2) Education and research activities of the profession; and (3) Personal characteristics or careers of the profession. This publication contains the following papers: (1) Changing Academic Profession in the World from 1992 to 2007 (Akira Arimoto); (2) Teaching "versus" Research in the Contemporary Academy (William K. Cummings); (3) Biographies, Careers and Work of Academics (Ulrich Teichler); (4) International Dimensions of the Australian Academic Profession (Leo Goedegebuure, Hamish Coates, Jeannet van der Lee, and Lynn Meek); (5) The Internationalization of Japan's Academic Profession 1992-2007: Facts and Views (Futao Huang); (6) The Internationalization of the American Faculty: Where Are We, What Drives or Deters Us? (Martin J. Finkelstein, Elaine Walker, and Rong Chen); (7) The Academic Profession in a Diverse Institutional Environment: Converging or Diverging Values and Beliefs? (Simon Schwartzman and Elizabeth Balbachevsky); (8) Education and Research Activities of the Academic Profession in Japan (Hideto Fukudome and Tsukasa Daizen); (9) The Academic Profession in Mexico: Changes, Continuities and Challenges Derived from a Comparison of Two National Surveys 15 Years Apart (Jesus F. Galaz-Fontes, Manuel Gil-Anton, Laura E. Padilla-Gonzales, Juan J. Sevilla-Garcia, Jose L. Arcos-Vega, and Jorge G. Martinez-Stack); (10) Teaching and Research across Academic Disciplines: Faculty's Preference, Activity, and Performance (Jung Cheol Shin); (11) Teaching and Research in English Higher Education: New Divisions of Labour and Changing Perspectives on Core Academic Roles (William Locke and Alice Bennion); (12) The Changing Employment and Work Situation of the Academic Profession in Germany (Anna Katharina Jacob and Ulrich Teichler); (13) The Changing Academic Profession in Japan (Yusuke Hasegawa and Naoyuki Ogata); and (14) What Changes Happened to the Academic Profession over 1992-2007? (Futao Huang). Appended are: (1) Conference Program; and (2) List of Participants. Individual papers contain figures, tables, footnotes and references. [This paper was co-created with Research Institute for Higher Education, Hijiyama University.