Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education : The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce

The latest volume in the Routledge International Studies in Higher Education Series, Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce, reviews the implications of new forms of academic and professional identity, which have emerged largely as a result of a broadening disciplinary base and increasing permeability between higher education and external environments.

The volume addresses the challenges faced by those responsible for the wellbeing of academic faculty and professional staff. International perspectives examine current practice against a background of rapidly changing policy contexts, focusing on the critical ‘people dimension’ of enhancing academic and professional activity, while also addressing national, socio-economic, and community agendas. Consideration is given to mainstream academic faculty and professional staff, researchers, library and information professionals, people with an interest in teaching and learning, and those involved in individual projects or institutional development.

The following provide the key themes of Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce:

• The implications of diversifying academic and professional identities for the functioning of higher education institutions and sectors.
• The pace and nature of such change in different institutional systems and environments.
• The challenges to institutional systems and structures from emergent identities and possible tensions, and how these might be addressed.
• The implications of blurring academic and professional identities, with a shift towards mixed or ‘blended’ roles, for individual careers and institutional development.

Professor George Gordon was the founding Director of the Centre for Academic Practice at the University of Strathclyde. As Emeritus Professor, he retains an association with the Centre, and is currently Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education.

Dr. Celia Whitchurch is Lecturer in Higher Education at the Centre for Higher Education Studies, Institute of Education, University of London.