University professors are exposed to high levels of stress as a result of the multiple activities involved in their profession. The objective of this research is to explain how a sequence of psychosocial variables directly and indirectly influences stress. Method: A non-probabilistic and non-clinical sample of 480 professors from different…

This article contributes to the current discussions on academic teacher identity in universities. In the managerial university and in the context of expanding HE, teaching has become a more complex, more problematised and more managed activity. This article approaches identity as identification on different levels of academic work and asks: What…

The increasing casualisation of academic labour over recent years has been noted across the global north. In the UK, this takes a number of forms, including fixed term, hourly paid and zero hours contracts. What tends to characterise them all, however, is a focus on the short-term. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study with 20 UK-based…

This study investigates a group of university teachers' beliefs and practice in using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in China. Drawing on data from reflective frames and follow-up interviews, the findings shed light on the complexity and multiplicity of EMI teachers' beliefs, which directly shape how they engage in EMI teaching in their…

Team-teaching is arguably shifting from the realm of pedagogic choice to that of necessity in a complex and demanding Higher Education (HE) landscape. This research gives a voice to staff collaborating in team-teaching, considering their motivations and approach, to identify key challenges and opportunities. Results indicate that the changing…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the practices and challenges of modular/block teaching in higher education institutions of Ethiopia. A descriptive survey design was used with instructors and students. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data and analysed quantitatively (descriptive and inferential…

While much has been spoken about the benefits and risks of student mobility in large scales, little attention has been given to how professors experience the burgeoning process of internationalization of higher education and how the presence of numerous international students has affected their teaching philosophies and practices. Given the…

This study, based on case study analyses of two interdisciplinary programmes in a research-intensive university in the UK, focuses on the challenges involved in designing, coordinating, and leading interdisciplinary postgraduate curricula, including workload, student heterogeneity, and difficulties in achieving coherence. Solutions and approaches…

Adopting new teaching practices, like the 'flipped classroom', disrupts organizational routines within the university. This paper examines flipped classroom implementation from the perspective of four stakeholder groups students, instructors, administrators, and managers), using an organizational routines lens. Disrupting established routines…

In this article, the author discusses how universities and the academics who work in them understand the relationship between teaching and research. In several countries, acknowledgement of the need to link teaching and research has led to the development of institutional strategies to achieve this goal. In South Africa, the linking of teaching…

Within the policy discourse of academic work, teaching, research and administration are seen as discrete elements of practice. We explore the assumptions evident in this "official story" and contrast it with the messy experience of academic work, drawing upon empirical studies and conceptualisations from our own research and from recent…

Proponents of the concept of the audit culture in UK higher education argue that from the late 1990s onward audit functioned as a form of power control and had a profound effect on academics and their work. Such arguments continued to be made into the early 2000s. Since then, however, the level of external scrutiny surrounding UK academics'…

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…

This paper examines the changing role of academics in providing support to students. In doing so, it argues that locating practice in higher education in a historical context gives a new perspective to current issues. In this case, the role of the residential warden is compared with the role of the personal tutor in higher education in the UK.…

In the last two decades, there have been noticeable changes in the ranks of academic labourers, specifically the increasing reliance on part-time instructors. The use of part-time instructors can be attributed to, among other things, cutbacks in state funding to universities and colleges due to, or as a response to, globalization. This study…