Australian universities are faced with the imminent retirement of a large proportion of their researchers. One way to avoid a decrement in research performance is to consider greater support for early career researchers (ECRs). To investigate how another university system that is ranked high in research performance supports its ECRs several…

University institutional policy is poorly understood. While policy is required by law for universities to accept funding and is revered for articulating values, mitigating risk, and guiding practice, policy is frequently considered absurd and resisted in practice. This is the policy-practice divide. To gain a better understanding of this divide…

The use of casual contract employment has become a prominent feature in higher education institutions worldwide, including the growth of adjunct roles in the United States and fixed-term teaching staff positions in the UK. In Australia, this trend has been a subject of significant controversy and national attention in recent years, as casual…

Recognising the pivotal role of teacher wellbeing in fostering teaching excellence, this paper explores the intricate relationships in the context of higher education. Employing an abductive, qualitative methodology and expanding the use of the PERMA framework to in the realm of higher education, this paper investigates the associations between…

This article draws on findings from a qualitative case study of a first-year online unit (subject) offered by a large public university through Open Universities Australia. It includes the student voice, taken from formal evaluation surveys, and the voice of casual academic tutors, provided through first-hand interviews and questionnaires. What…

Developing social capital in university teaching teams is a worthwhile exercise which can benefit students, educators and wider institutions through improvements in areas such as knowledge sharing, a critical component of effective teams. This case study analysis explores the social capital and knowledge sharing of two teaching teams at an…

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between learning climate congruence and the affective commitment of university academics. The strategy of inquiry for this research is quantitative, involving a non-experimental design for the survey research. A non-probability sample of 900 academics from a large Australian university was…

This paper reports and analyses findings from a qualitative study that explored the impact of organizational policy, cultures and support structures on the research pathways of early career researchers within one Australian university. The author captured the perspectives and experiences of six early and six senior researchers and examined the…

This book was written across a period of intense turmoil and change in higher education in Australia and England. The authors are deeply unsettled by these changes and wish to open up the discussion about what it means to be an academic and engage in academic work in the 21st century. Accordingly, each of the authors has nominated a theme or lens…

Loyalty raises a dilemma for women's career progression and leadership because it signals confidence in the organisation, despite the ongoing constraints that organisations present for women and their leadership aspirations. The research investigates women's loyalty in the context of higher education. Focussing on a select group of mid-level…

This study focuses on aspects of the Changing Academic Profession survey of 2007-08 that describe the place of faculty in their institutions. The authors examine the following aspects of institutional life: (1) the faculty role in institutional governance; (2) who evaluates their teaching and research; (3) the locus of their loyalties as between…

Academic work is becoming increasingly restrictive and controlled as tertiary institutions move towards a more corporate managerialistic mode of operating. This paper uses a narrative lens to explore the ways in which academic staff make sense of this new environment. In particular, it compares academic staff's stories of their worklife with the…

Draws on findings from a 1999 survey of academics in Australian universities about their work roles and values, to inform thinking enables academics to manage the growing complexity of their working lives is a prerequisite to the kinds of entrepreneurial activities essential for organizational success. Suggests starting points for institutional…

Purpose: In this paper teaching excellence awards are evaluated, with an eye to improving them. Design/methodology/approach: Literature is reviewed and an analytic framework developed in Canada is modified to apply to the University of Sydney's Vice Chancellor Outstanding Teaching Award. Data come from 60 respondents familiar with the Sydney award…

Purpose: Despite the increasing attention of organizational commitment in the management literature, most studies predominantly focus on full-time workers in traditional work settings. This paper examined the antecedents of organizational commitment among casual academics working in the tertiary education sector in Australia.…