McGregor, Russell (2012) Get a life: academic reflections on the dysfunctions of academia. LiNQ, 39. pp. 131-133.

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Abstract

Extract: The workaday scenarios described by Richard Hil will be familiar to academics around Australia:'teaching straight jacketed by the diktats of 'learning and teaching' experts; duties determined by workload models of transparent falsity; more students and fewer resources; emails clogged with administrative missives, most of monumental triviality; ceaseless surveillance to safeguard the university's 'brand'; and, research receding into a distant hope. As Hil depicts them, academics today are a disgruntled lot, and at the core of their disgruntlement is a loss of professional autonomy. For the increasing proportion of academic staff on short-term contracts, lack of job security and employment entitlements add another layer of discontentment. Hil's descriptions are laced with hyperbole, but the disillusionment and disaffection he diagnoses among academic staff are undeniable.

Item ID:	27865
Item Type:	Article (Book Review)
ISSN:	0817-458X
Keywords:	universities; academia; managerialism
Additional Information:	Book review of "Whackademia: an insider's account of the troubled university" by Richard Hil, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, NSW.
Date Deposited:	05 Jul 2013 02:32
FoR Codes:	13 EDUCATION > 1301 Education Systems > 130103 Higher Education @ 100%
SEO Codes:	93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9304 School/Institution > 930401 Management and Leadership of Schools/Institutions @ 100%
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