For change in higher education to be effective, it is necessary to integrate three important current movements: curriculum development; instructional improvement; and college outcomes assessment. The problems prompting the movements are closely connected, and their solutions are interrelated. Faculty workload and reward system are related issues.…

Data from a national faculty survey and other research on faculty motivation give insight into the difficulty of categorizing faculty work and productivity into discrete categories. The studies examine how time is experienced by faculty and used within the academic culture. Implications for definition of workload are examined. (MSE)

A discussion of methods for measuring college faculty workload first reviews course load analysis, the traditional method used to define, measure, and report faculty workload, then suggests some data alternatives and related issues faced by institutional research offices. Suggestions are offered for locating existing workload data, compiling a…

Intense scrutiny of research university faculty by legislators, college presidents and deans, and others is focusing on professors' autonomy, evaluation, and the balance between research and teaching responsibilities. Economic pressures are compounding the concern over professional and institutional autonomy. (MSE)

Interviews with senior academic administrators in Australian research universities concerning the relationship of teaching and research components of academic work revealed a strong belief in a symbiotic relationship with important but subtle interconnections. A three-level (tangible, intangible, and global) nexus between the two components is…

The calm appearance of dental faculty life belies the dynamic, fluid nature of faculty careers. The responsibilities, worries, and professional needs of beginning and experienced professors are distinctly different. A developmental framework can enhance a dental school's efforts to plan appropriate strategies for keeping faculty vital. (MSE)

An Australian survey of senior university administrators investigated their perceptions of research and scholarship. Interviews indicate "research" covers a wide and varied range of activities across disciplines but has three major attributes: new knowledge, inquiry, and publication of results. "Scholarship" was seen as part of…

Analysis of data on faculty workload, time expenditures, and pay support the idea that the college faculty reward system tends to emphasize the discreteness, not the mutuality, of teaching and research. Most institutions expect faculty to make conscious choices between those activities rather than assume that one reinforces the other. (MSE)

A model for allocation of college faculty teaching load is proposed. It requires that the department's overall teaching function be identified and broken into components and the components weighted. The model also permits the opportunity cost of decisions made on other criteria to be assessed. (MSE)

Discusses the role of the instructor in distance education programs and how that role differs from faculty in traditional educational settings. The impact of instructional technology is considered; methods of improving faculty receptivity to and attitudes toward distance education are described; and duties of faculty in distance education are…

The Copernican plan can help almost every U.S. high school decrease its average class size, increase its course offerings, substantially reduce teaching load, provide students with regularly scheduled seminars, establish a productive learning environment, and substantially increase learning mastery within present funding levels. Sidebars describe…

Reports on a survey of senior journalism and mass communication faculty regarding how they have coped with changes in academic life over the past two decades. Finds that senior professors believe that their academic lives have become more complicated. (SR)

Examines distance education practices over the past 10 years that must be addressed for developing feasible distance and distributed learning systems for the 21st century. Changes in financing, accrediting, assessment, and faculty workload are recommended so that higher education institutions can function more like businesses to provide…

Examines the dilemmas of mid-career feminist professors, including: escalating demands on their time; pressures of work and family; high casualty rates among women hired; friction between generations and among feminists; and doubts about what professionalism means to the collective participants in the feminist venture. Discusses strains of this…

A study estimated the effects of college faculty gender differences on research and teaching productivity, using a sample of 523 four-year institutions for the academic year 1987-1988. Results indicate that female faculty have significant marginal productivity in research at liberal arts institutions but not in other institution categories.…