Academic careers in the 21st century: Challenges and opportunities

While the paper draws on data derived within higher education, the conceptualisation of the emergent conditions and opportunities draws on literature from the fields of human resources management and organisational development. To date this literature has largely been overlooked in discussions of the development of universities in the service of a flexible society, or of academic careers. The discussion offers the view that where once the challenge was to get on a career pathway, it now it seems that it might be helpful, even healthy, for academics to get off it or even to ignore it. In a context where career pathways may no longer be provided within institutions, it is likely to be fruitless to invest in a psychological contract assuming active institutional support for an individual's career development.

The message is that it may be better to think in terms of a professional career, and of relationships with employers more flexibly, as separate but related opportunities. That is, to no longer expect universities as employers to be the primary long term supporter of an individual's career development. They will continue to offer opportunities for advancement, but largely through job advertisement rather than internal promotional schemes. In turn, this will require academics to re-shape themselves as individuals who can be productive in an uncertain world through active self management rather than reliance on benevolent management by the institution. Further, this will require that academics recognise what is happening to their career opportunities, and invest in the development of competencies for such self management of those opportunities, including know-why, know-how, and know-who competencies. These capacities are elaborated in the discussion.