The Arc of the Academic Research Career Issues and Implications for U.S. Science and Engineering Leadership: Summary of a Workshop (2014) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Background to Change
2 Background to Change
Pages 5-12
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 5... ...
STRUCTURE OF THE ACADEMIC RESEARCH CAREER Implicit in all the workshop discussions was a shared understanding of how a traditional academic career progresses. Basic to this system is tenure, a promise of lifetime employment as a faculty member at a particular institution.
|
From page 6... ...
Appointment to a tenure-track assistant professorship certifies the individual as an independent investigator who has the institution's backing in the competition for research grants.2 In fields that require laboratories, equipment, and workers to produce research results, universities provide new assistant professors start-up money to establish their laboratories. In return, the new assistant professor is expected to start providing money to support the laboratory within a few years by winning competitive grants, usually from the federal government.
|
From page 7... ...
Particularly successful competitors -- those who consistently receive substantial research support and achieve publications in prestigious journals and build eminent reputations within their fields -- can win prestigious and lucrative honors and receive appealing offers to move to other institutions, bringing their productive labs and attendant grants with them to their new academic homes. Leading researchers in a field may make several such moves.
|
From page 8... ...
A second great change has been the composition of both the graduate student and postdoc populations and the professoriate, as women have entered graduate school and the academic profession in large numbers. Robert Hauser, the executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council and the former director of the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin, who joined Malcom in setting the stage for the issues the workshop would consider, noted that the percentage of women earning STEM doctorates has risen substantially in all fields, but especially in the life sciences.
|
From page 9... ...
Figure 2-2 Underrepresented minorities as a percentage of full-time, full professors with science, engineering, and health doctorates, by institution of employment: 1993–2010. SOURCE: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2013; www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/.
|
From page 10... ...
.5 "That is a big change in the character of the academic workforce over these years." Figure 2-3Trends in instructional staff employment status, by percent of total instructional staff for all institutions, national totals: 1975–2011. NOTES: Figures for 2011 are estimated.
|
From page 11... ...
Today's faculty members -- and their employers -- must also negotiate the issues surrounding retirement, which has become discretionary rather than mandatory at a specified age. The seemingly stable career arc that appeared to lie before aspiring academics during Malcom's graduate school days has irrevocably shattered.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.