The Global Future of Higher Education and the Academic Profession : The BRICs and the United States

This is the first book to critically analyze the future of higher education systems in the four BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - and the USA, analyzing academic salaries, contracts and working conditions and how national policy will affect the academic profession in each context. "The Global Future of Higher Education and the Academic Profession focuses on the all-important emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) nations and the United States by analyzing the academic profession and particularly salaries and contracts. The professoriate is key to the success of any academic system, and this is the first book to carefully analyze academic systems and the academic profession. The academic profession must be adequately paid, and appointments to academic jobs must be based on merit and provide an effective career path for the 'best and brightest' to be attracted to the profession. The BRICs show a variety of approaches to academic careers - and none provide globally competitive salaries. China and Russia, in particular, pay academics poorly. Using purchasing power parity, this book is able to accurately compare the actual purchasing power of the academic profession. The book also analyzes how professors are appointed and promoted. While the BRICs may be emerging global economic powers, their academic systems still face significant challenges"--Page 4 of cover. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii The Prospects for the BRICs: The New Academic Superpowers?....Pages 1-27 Higher Education, the Academic Profession, and Economic Development in Brazil....Pages 28-55 Changing Realities: Russian Higher Education and the Academic Profession....Pages 56-92 India: Streamlining the Academic Profession for a Knowledge Economy....Pages 93-125 The Chinese Academic Profession: New Realities....Pages 126-159 The Changing American Academic Profession....Pages 160-198 Back Matter....Pages 199-206