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Using the rights contained in the Freedom of Information Act, we collected data on the teaching undertaken by staff at 52 UK universities. In contrast to workload modelling, our data reveals the extent of the variation in contact hours by institution, subject, and seniority. We provide for the first time an accurate measure of the teaching undertaken by staff on different contract types. One of our findings is that few universities employ full-time Teaching-only staff. It is some of the most prestigious universities that are leading the way in promoting this specialisation, with important implications for teaching and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research exploring the academic workload and performance practices of Australian universities. This research has identified a suite of activities associated with teaching, research and service, each with an associated time value (allocation). This led to the development of the academic workload estimation tool (AWET). In 2020, to validate the findings, we contacted academics willing to participate further and conducted interviews. We used the AWET to estimate workload for each individual for the previous year and compared it to the workload allocated according to their institutional workload model. Discrepancies were then discussed to ascertain to what extent the AWET was able to capture their work. In general, the participants thought the AWET provided a more realistic estimate of their actual work and highlighted how much is underestimated or unaccounted for by the workload models used within their institutions. It also showed how academic performance policies, focussed primarily on research output, disadvantaged many individuals because they ignored or minimised many scholarly, teaching and service-related tasks inherent in the academic role. Overall, the findings showed the AWET was a useful tool to discuss academic work and assisted them to better capture the complexity and extent of what they did. We offer the AWET as a validated approach for academics to estimate their workload in a holistic and transparent manner. We suggest its implementation institution-wide, along with an aligned performance policy, will facilitate negotiation of reasonable performance expectations. This will rebuild trust in the processes and improve a university's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive reorganization, reduction of staff, and budget cuts has taken place across the educational landscape in recent years. But data from all across indicates a worrisome rise in stress at work for those working in private higher education institutions (Academic and Support Staff). Researchers at Tamil Nadu's private universities are starting off by looking at the long-term repercussions of workplace stress. In the second phase, 372 academic and support personnel from 15 universities were surveyed about 12 occupational stress variables. Stress levels of private university staff were examined using the Stress Screening Tool (SET) and a factual questionnaire. Stressors at the university included workload, control, work relationships, and pay and perks. Survey respondents reported more physical and psychological disease and less confidence in management than the worldwide norm. All of the biographical characteristics studied were shown to have a statistically significant effect on occupational stress levels. Employee health problems were less affected by work-related stress because to organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores peer review through the lens of internal feedback. It investigates the internal feedback that students generate when they compare their work with the work of peers and with comments received from peers. Inner feedback was made explicit by having students write an account of what they were learning from making these different comparisons. This allowed evaluation of the extent to which students' self-generated feedback comments would match the feedback comments a teacher might provide, and exploration of other variables hypothesized to influence inner feedback generation. Analysis revealed that students' self-generated feedback became more elaborate from one comparison to the next and that this, and multiple simultaneous comparisons, resulted in students' generating feedback that not only matched the teacher's feedback but surpassed it in powerful and productive ways. Comparisons against received peer comments added little to the feedback students had already generated from comparisons against peer works. The implications are that having students make explicit the internal feedback they generate not only helps them build their metacognitive knowledge and self-regulatory abilities but can also decrease teacher workload in providing comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we change the conversation about faculty work? Informed by recent changes in higher education in the Netherlands, this chapter highlights three areas that are at the intersection between faculty development and educational renewal as salient for supporting mid‐career faculty—addressing first the emerging opportunities and responsibilities for individual faculty members, then for teams, and finally for institutional leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that overloaded plates and stress are common in mid‐career is well known. Likewise, we know that the unequal distribution of faculty workload is one of the most important, yet least talked about, inequities that shape the experiences of faculty members within colleges and universities. In particular, women and racially minoritized mid‐career faculty face unusually high service, teaching, and mentoring workloads. Often we place the onus for aligning time and priorities, and "saying no" on mid‐career faculty members themselves. In this chapter, the author(s) take a different approach, drawing on five years of action research with academic departments. They share key conditions that department leaders can create, and practices they can put in place to scaffold equity and agency in mid‐career faculty workloads and rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faculty are often evaluated on perceptions of their teaching effectiveness, their service activities, and their research productivity. To meet their institutional standards in each area, the faculty must properly allocate and manage their time. Administrators and department chairs have the means to facilitate or hinder faculty research productivity through teaching and service assignments. This paper provides administrators and faculty with a framework to evaluate each faculty member's annual workload to ensure that adequate time should be available to meet institutional expectations. This framework illustrates the negative effects that multiple course preparations and heavy teaching loads have on research productivity. Institutional policies should be adjusted to consider these effects on their faculty's research productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing expectation that academic staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) will be qualified to doctoral level can mean that doctoral study must be juggled alongside administration, teaching, and academic duties. Many academics study in their own institutions. We wished to explore their perspectives on (i) how the two roles, of being an academic as well as a doctoral candidate, interact or not and (ii) the influences and resources at play in navigating the processes. The qualitative study explored staff experiences in two HEIs in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a theoretical framework, we identified the contradictions within and between academic life and doctoral candidature activity systems. However, we focus on the tools and rules that frame daily academic life and doctoral study, and suggest remodelling systems to be kinder to academic staff brave enough to engage in doctoral study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of faculty working within baccalaureate degree–granting community colleges. Method: Data sources included 16 semi-structured interviews, numerous publicly available organizational documents, and participant observations. Results: Analysis revealed three distinct, yet interconnected themes. In light of the institutionalization of baccalaureate degrees, faculty experienced shifting and intensifying work expectations related to service, research, and research-related activities. These shifts exacerbated existing tensions, which in turn led faculty to live with uncertainty in terms of tenure and promotion, the direction of the college, and whether or not they could thrive in a highly contradictory environment. Contributions: This study adds to the literature concerning the community college baccalaureate—a topic of heightened interest. It is essential that we gain a better understanding of the implications of this trend for faculty, which in turn carry implications for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the education system in Ecuador have increased the workload of university teachers, producing stress and burnout. This study analyses the relation between work overload, coping styles and emotional exhaustion in a sample of 202 university teachers by using a hierarchical regression model analysis. The results show that work overload and evasive coping are positively related to emotional exhaustion, while active coping is negatively related to emotional exhaustion. Evasive coping moderated the relationship between work overload and emotional exhaustion so that teachers who use more evasive coping in situations of high work overload experience less burnout than teachers who use this coping style less. Finally, we discuss the limitations of this study and its theoretical and practical contributions for university professors in Latin American contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing workloads for supervisors and the challenges in research proposals for postgraduates, the study focused on engaging 15 postgraduates in a Malaysian public university in a peer research group. The data was collected from observations of the group meetings, video-recorded peer feedback and follow-up interviews. The qualitative analysis of the data indicates that the research group supported the postgraduates through peer feedback practices, learning how to present proposals and defend themselves and finding directions in research proposals. Although their engagement was challenged by initial reservations of some postgraduates to present their proposals and provide feedback and issues related to provision, reception and reliability of peer feedback, these challenges were minimized through mentoring and instructional strategies. While peer research groups represent a valuable pedagogical support that complement supervisors' support to postgraduates in developing their research proposals, the value should be maximized by integrating supervisors in research groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Learning more about the role of the academic department in LACs may improve faculty selection, development, support, and retention. Knowledge based on research about other institution types cannot be assumed to be generalizable to LACs. We know little about departmental contexts of faculty work in liberal arts colleges (LACs). The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand the department as an organizational context of faculty work in LACs, relying on the concept of positive organizational behavior. Findings from analysis of interview data from 55 liberal arts faculty members highlight the influence of three areas—culture, colleagues, and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Peer assessment can be considered in the framework of group decision making and hence take advantage of many of the proposed methods and evaluation processes. Despite the potential of peer assessment to greatly reduce the workload of educators, a key hurdle to its uptake is its perceived reliability, with there being the preconception that peers may not be as reliable or fair as 'experts'. In this contribution, we consider approaches to moderation with the aim of increasing the accuracy of scores given while reducing the total workload of the subject experts (or lecturers in the university context). Firstly, we propose several indices, which, in combination can be used to estimate the reliability of peer markers. Secondly, we consider the consensus of scores received by peers. We hence approach the problem of reliability from two angles, and from these considerations can identify a subset of peers whose results should be flagged for moderation. We conduct some numerical experiments to investigate the potential for these techniques in the context of peer assessment with heterogeneous marking behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time is a valuable resource in academic careers. Empirical evidence suggests women faculty spend more time in campus service than men. Yet some studies show no difference when relevant variables are included. The primary source of data for most workload studies is cross-sectional surveys that have several weaknesses. This study investigated campus service inequality and factors that predict it at 1 research university using a novel and more comprehensive source of data - annual faculty reports. The investigation was guided by Kanter’s work on the role of power and representation and Lewis and Simpson’s rereading of Kanter’s work to focus on gender, power, and representation. The authors examined 1,146 records of faculty campus service during 2 years. In both years, women faculty reported more total campus service than men while controlling for race, rank, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and the critical mass of women in a department. When considering levels of service, women reported higher numbers of service activities at the department and university levels. Women in male-dominated fields tended to have service workloads more like their peers and less like women in non-STEM fields. The article concludes with considerations regarding implications for organizing practices that maintain inequity between men and women in campus service. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to understand how lecturers delivering college-based higher education viewed their workloads, and how this (if at all), influenced their engagement in scholastic activities, which may then enable them to become more knowledgeable in their chosen field of study. The research was of a qualitative nature, whereby semi-structured, in-depth interviews were undertaken with 26 individual lecturers employed at different further education colleges throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region. It was found that lack of time and onerous administrative responsibilities on top of their current workload were two of the major issues these lecturers were facing in their current roles. As a result, it is recommended that an independent audit be conducted to ascertain FE lecturers’ contact time with students and that ways in which to reduce their administrative duties be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More studies are concentrating on using virtualization-based labs to facilitate computer or network learning concepts. Some benefits are lower hardware costs and greater flexibility in reconfiguring computer and network environments. However, few studies have investigated effective mechanisms for using virtualization fully for collaboration. Therefore, this study proposed one effective collaboration mechanism--synchronized pair configuration--in a virtualization-based lab and aimed to enhance interaction and collaboration between paired students to help them accomplish networks or systems configuration through one shared, synchronized terminal, which allows them to input commands simultaneously from two computers to accomplish tasks. Meanwhile, they can communicate through a chat window. In the experiment, university students were divided into an experimental group, using a synchronized pair configuration for lab assignments, and a control group, with students completing lab assignments individually. Results indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in learning achievement and had more confidence in their work; furthermore, the instructor's workload was reduced. Finally, findings of interviews and questionnaires revealed that the experimental group considerably enjoyed the proposed mechanism and system and had high motivation to use them. Therefore, synchronized pair configuration in a virtualization-based lab is suitable for learning computer networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study tests an integrative model that considers the plausible effects of different areas of work life on emotional exhaustion. It also tests the mediating effect of organizational trust on this relationship. More specifically, while perceived incongruence in six areas of work life (workload, fairness, reward, community, control and value) is treated as a predictor of emotional exhaustion, organizational trust is treated as a mediating factor in understanding the underlying mechanism of emotional exhaustion in academicians. Data were collected from 201 academicians working in public universities in Turkey and were analyzed using a structural equation model. Results provided partial support for the proposed conceptual model. Specifically, organizational trust mediated the link between four areas of work life (i.e., workload, fairness, reward, and value) and emotional exhaustion. Contrary to our expectations, the mediating effect of organizational trust was found to be insignificant for community and control. Findings suggest the importance of building organizational trust by focusing on six areas of work life in order to prevent burnout in academicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the support mentors provide to new lecturers as part of a postgraduate programme designed to familiarise them with university teaching. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 13 new lecturers and nine mentors, we document the support new lecturers’ call upon to shape their practice. We identify important issues surrounding the significance of mentor choice, in terms of a mentor’s experience, position and knowledge of their role, which determine the effectiveness of professional learning. Difficult issues were observed relating to prioritisation and workload for new lecturers and their mentors, and as a consequence the wider networks of colleagues and peers that new lecturers drew upon were seen as an essential source of advice. Indeed, the extent of their use depended on assistance available from mentors. Our data indicate the need for careful framing of mentoring relationships in terms of professional development and teaching enhancement to ensure the benefits of these interactions are realised. Equally both parties need to be encouraged to use reflection to scaffold interactions to promote professional learning. Our data also identify the need for recognition for those performing mentoring roles, to ensure they can dedicate necessary time so that productive relationships are sustained for the duration over which support is required. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a variety of research approaches and instruments, previous research has revealed what university students tend to see as benefits and disadvantages of the integration of research in teaching. In the present study, a questionnaire was developed on the basis of categorizations of the research-teaching nexus in the literature. The aim of the Student Perception of Research Integration Questionnaire (SPRIQ) is to determine the factors that capture the way students perceive research integration in their courses. The questionnaire was administered among 221 students from five different undergraduate courses at a research intensive university in The Netherlands. Data analysis revealed four factors regarding research integration: motivation, reflection, participation, and current research. These factors are correlated with students' rating of the quality of the course and with their beliefs about the importance of research for their learning. Moreover, courses could be distinguished in terms of research intensiveness, from the student perspective, based on the above-mentioned factors. It is concluded that the SPRIQ helps to understand how students perceive research integration in specific courses and is a promising tool to give feedback to teachers and program managers who aim to strengthen links between research, teaching, and student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research often considers vertical stratification between U.S. higher education institutions. Yet differences also exist within higher education institutions, which we term "organizational segmentation." We understand organizational segmentation as a consequence of the external "prestige economy," which favors research revenues from high-resource science and engineering fields relative to instructional revenues collected by low-resource humanities departments. We use qualitative data from 83 interviews with faculty in high- and low-resource departments to examine how organizational segmentation, academic work, and professionalization are shaped by external and internal resource pressures. We find that deprofessionalization has occurred in different ways for faculty in high- and low-resource academic units. Faculty in high-resource units, like Brint's (1994) "expert" professionals, depend on external research resources and shape their careers accordingly, whereas faculty in low-resource units rely upon teaching revenues distributed by campus administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synopsis In many regions, the past decade has been characterised by significant transformations of models of organisation and evaluation of academic work. These include processes of extensification, elasticisation and casualisation of academic labour, and the institutionalisation of regimes of “performativity” (Ball, 2003), enacted by apparatuses of measurement and auditing (Burrows, 2012). These interacting trends are having significant impacts not only on academic working conditions, but also on opportunities for sociopolitical intervention outside the academy. This article draws on an ethnography of Portuguese academia, and on debates about the “toxic” (Gill, 2010) and “careless” (Lynch, 2010) nature of contemporary academic cultures, to analyse the current (im)possibilities of articulating activism and academic work. I argue that in the present day “academia without walls” (Gill, 2010) this articulation is extremely difficult, but we must reject conceptualising that difficulty as an individual challenge, and reframe it as a structural problem requiring – urgently – collective responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflection is an important teacher education concept. There has been a plethora of research on the connotation and implementation of the concept and this has been going on. The present paper, part of a larger study, conducted during my PhD research, presents university tutors' and student teachers' perceptions about possible impediments in the way of its implementation in a one year pre-service postgraduate teacher education programme at university in the United Kingdom. Main findings from this qualitative case study reveal that a diverse range of factors hinder the way of proper conceptualisation and implementation of reflection. Lack of time and the amount of work to be covered during the programme came out as main impediments to the proper development of reflection among student teachers. Other hindrances pointed out by participants included issues such as rigid and centralised structures of practicum schools, student teachers' tendency to focus on learning tips, particular pre-conceptions and attitudes of student teachers, tutors, co-tutors and course co-ordinators, particular cultures of school departments, and lack of coordination between school and university tutors. Interestingly, theoretical and/or definitional issues were rarely pointed out as possible hindrance with regard to reflection either by university tutors or student teachers. This has important implications for the conceptualisation and implementation of the concept in this and similar programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a 2010 survey of academic chairs, this study reports on academic department chairs' recommended time allocations to new assistant professors. I contend that personal values about research and teaching influence the department chair's recommendations along with organizational characteristics. Multi-level modeling indicates that department chairs' own academic time allocations, promotion history, and desire for quality teaching as well as organizational characteristics such as research facilities, average teaching load, and research ranking influence the department chairs' advice. These results suggest that organizational characteristics do not dominate official, individual actions within the university setting as bureaucratic and neo-institutional theories might predict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues surrounding increasingly constrained resources and reducing levels of sector-based funding require consideration of a different Academic Work Allocation Model (AWAM) approach. Evidence from the literature indicates that an effective work allocation model is founded on the principles of equity and transparency in the distribution and allocation of academic work across the three key domains of teaching, research, and service-administration. It is recognised that the success of any AWAM approach is positively influenced by a clear methodology that is easily understood and widely accepted by academic staff. This paper presents a case study of the development of a new faculty-level AWAM at one Australian university that incorporates the desired principles, but is linked to the budget and resource planning, allowing it to be agile and responsive in a volatile fiscal environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An editorial is presented in which the editor comments on challenges faced by professors in Christian institutions regarding writing of their research work. Topics discussed include challenges to scholarly productivity in Christian colleges such as low expectations for scholarship, teaching and learning affected when faculty members and administrators are engaged in serious research, low level of support for scholarly work and the issue of workload.

Higher education in the UK is under increasing pressure to manage the workload of its academic staff in a way that maximises the outputs from teaching and research. The emergence of this trend can be traced back to 1989 and the government legislation that introduced neo-liberal managerialism into the sector mirroring the laissez-faire approach to the economy that was prevalent at the time. This article examines the literature surrounding workload management and staff performance in the sector to try to establish whether the two have been conceptually linked. A desk-based narrative literature review was executed in order to scrutinise the literature and attempt to answer the main question: what does ‘performance’ mean in relation to an academic role and how is this related to an academic’s workload within the post-92 (referring to ex-polytechnics and colleges of higher education granted university title following the Further and Higher Education Act 1992) higher education sector? The results of the review show that the literature is dichotomous both in terms of the two areas being discrete and also in the conceptual stance taken by writers in each area. Whilst there are inferred links between workload management and performance, these have not been explored. The article concludes by outlining what further research is needed on the linkages between workload management and staff performance specifically, using socially-critical methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article documents the experiences of three early career academics trying to establish a network of early career academics (ECAs) in a middle-ranked university in Australia. The changing context of academia means that ECAs face considerable challenges in understanding and negotiating effective career paths. Some of the issues encountered include insecure employment arrangements; unclear and shifting expectations; heavy workloads and competing demands; and conflicting experiences around the collegiate culture of academia. As research and teaching institutions, universities must ensure the ongoing development of new academics. While there is a growing interest in exploring the issues confronted by new academics, much remains to be done to better understand, and improve, the pathways of academic development. To this end we reflect on our efforts to establish an ECA network that aimed to enhance professional development, facilitate an improved research culture and establish an informal peer support network. We did so through establishing an online presence for sharing information, hosting a series of professional development seminars and hosting a 2.5 day writing retreat. Our experiences suggest that, while efforts to enhance the capacity of ECAs are worthwhile, the very same pressures that our network was attempting to address were simultaneously creating barriers to ECA involvement in the network and its activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Assessment is central to learning. It is also central to the cost of providing higher education. Choosing how much and what forms of assessment are questions not only of good teaching but of good policy. Measuring the amount of assessment set in each course provides a basis on which to determine equitable and appropriate workloads for students and staff across disciplines and institutions and to use institutional budgets and staff time to best effect. It is, however, more difficult than it might at first appear to select metrics appropriate to this task. This article considers the advantages and disadvantages of four options. It also suggests the potential value of ratios and proposes that further consideration be given to removing the distinction commonly found in student workload formulae between time spent on learning out of class and that spent on assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The vast majority of new PhDs will spend their academic lives at regional universities, liberal arts colleges, and even two-year schools, where the primary focus is on excellence in teaching, and the service load is heavy. In that environment, maintaining a scholarly life is challenging, but with planning and mindful time management, it is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholars have critiqued norms of neoliberal higher education (HE) by calling for embodied and anti-oppressive teaching and learning. Implicit in these accounts, but lacking elaboration, is a concern with reformulating the notion of ‘time’ and temporalities of academic life. Employing a coloniality perspective, this article argues that in order to reconnect our minds to our bodies and center embodied pedagogy in the classroom, we should disrupt Eurocentric notions of time that colonize our academic lives. I show how this entails slowing down and ‘being lazy’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is relatively uncontroversial to say that increasing workload, speed of change and the feeling that life is getting faster negatively impact on the academic profession. Drawing from primary data and secondary analyses, this article, nonetheless, highlights the specific ambivalence that emerges from investigations of time experience in contemporary academia. The argument presented here distinguishes between dominant oppressive acceleration with adverse implications and subtle, yet non-negligible, energizing accelerative moments. In the first instance, I explore how the increasing inability to determine one’s own temporal rhythm results in increasingly reported feelings of guilt. These feelings are, moreover, exacerbated by the currently ubiquitous doctrine of ‘excellence’, which has specific temporal connotations. Second, reflecting on phenomenological aspects of research conduct – a constitutive academic activity – I track the positive attributes of enabling acceleration as integral components of academic lifeworld. In this, I differ from the existing accounts analysing academic life in the fast lane, which unreservedly define acceleration in unfavourable terms, and yet in no way do I underestimate the seriousness of the negative consequences of rush, hurry and intensified workload for the scholarly profession. Broaching acceleration as a variegated experience, I conclude by outlining the inclusive conception of unhasty time and stress the need for its political enactment in higher education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, most Australian universities have moved increasingly towards 'blended' and online course delivery for both undergraduate and graduate programs. In almost all cases, elements of online teaching are part of routine teaching loads. Yet detailed and accurate workload data associated with 'e-teaching' are not readily available. A search of the international literature indicated that there is limited rigorous literature and research that points to the actual effects on workload in online and blended higher education teaching environments. This paper reports on a research project in four Australian universities, and the perceptions of a representative group of staff who perceived that e-teaching had increased their 'teaching time' workload, and that Workload Allocation Models ( WAMs) did not take account of contemporary teaching modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British further education (FE) sector has experienced almost continual restructuring as it adapts to simultaneously meet the evolving needs of industry and to tackle social injustice. Studies examining the work of FE lecturers suggest that they have become alienated and stressed by loss of autonomy and work intensification. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative case study utilising the concept of emotional labour to explore how female care lecturers within a Scottish FE college experience the demands of their work. The findings suggest that the influence of the broader FE sector, along with professional and gender identities, is evident in the lecturer’s teaching and care ethics and is directly related to the emotional demands faced by the lecturers. Furthermore, it is suggested that as current austerity measures affect the sector, lecturers may find it difficult to recognise and challenge excessive levels of emotional labour that are associated with their work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the relationship between the work conditions in higher education work settings, the academic staff’s strategies for handling excessive workload and impact on well-being and work-life balance. The results show that there is a risk that staff in academic work places will start using compensatory coping strategies to deal with excessive demands and that this might seriously impair their health. The compensatory strategy cluster emerged as a ‘risk group’ among the three identified strategy clusters, having a lower work-life balance and suffering from stress-related symptoms more often than the other two strategy clusters. The results also show that high educational level, management position and wide discretion as regards regulation of work in time and space (when and where to work) are factors that might contribute to a lower work-life balance. In practice, the results can contribute to create more sustainable work environments by detecting risk behaviours and risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we draw from academic capitalism to explore the work lives and experiences of faculty who work in a striving university. Our analysis suggests that faculty members feel pressures induced by academic capitalism, including a lack of space, no time and the sense of constant surveillance. Our work adds to the theoretical as well as empirical discussions concerning striving, academic capitalism and the impacts of both on the academic profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High teacher attrition rates are an international problem. This study explores what former teachers pinpoint as their main exit reasons from teaching. Interviews were conducted with twenty-one former teachers in Flanders (Belgium) about push and pull factors. Our findings show that teachers mainly relate their exit to characteristics of the profession. For novices, the characteristics of the profession resulting in attrition are job insecurity and an exceeding workload, while the decisive factor for experienced teachers is the professions' flat career structure. Moreover, the school context reinforces career doubts, especially for novices who experience issues with class management and feel demoralised. • Teachers mainly relate their exit to characteristics of the teacher profession. • Novices stress job insecurity and an exceeding work load. • Experienced teachers attribute their exit to the flat career structure. • The school context can reinforce teachers' doubts to exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results from a survey on faculty attitudes towards the teaching and research roles are presented. Attention is given to: (i) the perceived value of teaching (and teaching achievements) relative to research, (ii) approaches for research and teaching integration, (iii) the satisfaction gained from typical work tasks, and (iv) the importance of various work-life factors. Factors such as academic freedom, an intellectual work environment, flexible work hours, inspirational colleagues, and work diversity are found to be highly valued. Support from peers and colleagues is also seen as a key in learning to manage the different academic roles. A relatively low value is attributed to teaching achievements. Likewise, there is often little utilisation of teaching opportunities to support research work (other than senior-year research projects). Female faculty were found to give marginally a higher importance to teaching recognition and collaborative teaching opportunities. Based on the findings, general recommendations for supporting the teaching researcher are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the relationship between teaching and research in a fieldwork context by seeking student views over 3 years across two institutions to assess the perceived value of blending staff research activity with student fieldwork. Student views were solicited using questionnaires. Despite the contrasting environments, locations and approaches of the institutions’ respective field courses, student perceptions are remarkably similar. Engaging in research activity in fieldwork (and specifically combining research-based student fieldwork with staff research) is perceived strongly to add value to study for a degree, as well as stimulate interest in the subject and improve understanding of methodologies employed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores Korean academics’ changes in research productivity by career stage. Career stage in this study is defined as a specific cohort based on one’s length of job experience, with those in the same stage sharing similar interests, values, needs, and tasks; it is categorized into fledglings, maturing academics, established academics, and patriarchs. Academics’ research productivity in each career stage is analysed, and these characteristics are compared across academic disciplines. In addition, the factors influencing research productivity in different career stages are examined. The results indicate that research productivity among academics changes according to their career stage, and its pattern differs across academic disciplines. Thus, there is a need to provide proper reward systems or career development programs in consideration of such differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The workload of academics in Australia is increasing. Among the potential ramifications of this are work-related stress and burnout. Unions have negotiated workload models in employment agreements as a means of distributing workload in a fair and transparent manner. This qualitative pilot study aimed to explore how academics perceive their current workload and the utility of workload formulas within their workplace. The findings revealed five themes: scepticism, anger, vindication, justice and balance. Workload models appear to have utility within academia as a means of balancing role expectations in an equitable and transparent manner. They are also useful for demonstrating workloads to management objectively and identifying staff at increased risk of burnout because of inappropriately high workloads. Problematic issues identified were perceptions that workload models are management tools to control and monitor the workplace, and their implementation would not result in change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author expresses his opinion regarding the priorities of college presidents and the academic concerns they delegate to academic administrators. He discusses college presidents involvement with fundraising, public relations, and governing boards, faculty authority of undergraduate curricula and teaching methods, and remarks on the disapproval expressed by faculty concerning presidential involvement in academic affairs.

This follow-up study examines whether or not findings of single institution studies are applicable to other institutions by performing an institution-to-institution comparison of the results obtained from an information-seeking behavior survey sent to education faculty at twenty research institutions. The results from this study corroborated what was found in the previous study conducted on the information-seeking behavior of engineering faculty in 2009. It indicates that general information about information-seeking behavior of faculty holds true across institutions, while information related to specific library services or facilities should be validated locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined motivational strategies and utilisation of Internet resources as determinants of research productivity of lecturers in universities of agriculture in Nigeria. One thousand, one hundred and thirty two (1,132) copies of the questionnaire were administered on the lecturers in universities of agriculture in Nigeria. Eight hundred and twenty-six (826) copies of the questionnaire were completed, returned and used for this study, which represents (72.9% p< 0.01). An overwhelming majority of the lecturers use Internet resources frequently and identified inconsistencies in public electric power output as well as inadequate infrastructural support, particularly telecommunication facilities. It is therefore recommended that there is a need for creating an enabling environment in the universities set up in order to develop an intrinsic drive for knowledge creation that will build a positive attitude toward doing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]