Melissa Gregg has an excellent piece in New Matilda today "Why Academia Is No Longer A Smart Choice". Although I would encourage you to read the whole article, here is an extract:
So often the perception of university life in Australia is a cosy existence involving luxurious philosophical debates, long holidays and international sabbaticals.
The reality is far less glamorous.
The past 10 years has seen an escalation of requirements for entry-level jobs so great that starting positions aren't even advertised. The over-supply of PhD graduates has made competition so fierce for tenured positions that casual contracts have replaced ongoing junior positions. Our best graduates, fresh from the biggest challenge higher education can throw at them, face their most energetic years vying for the privilege of this state of insecurity.
...
For those who do succeed in getting a foot in the door in academia, the news isn't much better.
A recent survey of academics at one Sydney university showed a 100 per cent response rate when asked if they worked on weekends. My own research in the past few years has shown how tenured life involves a never-ending series of online administrative tasks that consume work and home life. All too rarely are these duties punctuated with face-to-face contact with colleagues and students — often the principal motivation for scholars to aspire to the job in the first place.
Branding strategies, overseas campuses, international recruitment and research outputs are the operational priorities for Australian universities. This leaves the value of teaching ambiguous at best, since prestige comes from winning grants that absolve senior scholars from teaching undergraduates.
...
The contradiction at the heart of today's universities is the expectation that employees will uphold the ideals of scholarship in tandem with commercial values, and that they will do this in every area of their working life except pay. Is it any wonder that our peers our leaving for other professions?
...
As scholars, we are tired of seeing good people leave the industry broken by its demanding and ever-moving goal posts. When a government promises an education revolution, it needs to make sure it has a strong frontline.
For over a decade a generation of graduates have been told to wait for Baby Boomers to retire to begin our lives as professionals, as home-owners, as people with families, as people who might want to have weekends. So many of our smartest friends have already seen through this infinitely suspended promise.
A great amount of talent will be lost if our energy, ideas and hopes are ignored any longer.
Read the full piece here.
