Three essays by the Director of the Comparative Education Center at the State University of New York (Buffalo) have the following titles: "Comparative Perspectives on the Academic Profession,""Student Political Activism," and "University Reform". The first essay discusses the role of the academic profession in the university, stressing the professoriate is the most important single element in the university. Topics considered are autonomy, accountability and the professoriate; the professoriate under stress; historical perspectives; the sociology of the professoriate; promotion and remuneration; national case studies; and the professoriate as an international community. The second essay offers some general perspectives on student politics including the historical context, the impossibility of a "permanent revolution" in the university, responses to activism, who the activists are, the impact of activism, and differences in student activism in the industrial nations and the Third World. The final essay looks at the sources and nature of reform in the university in a discussion of difficulties of reform, the need for reform, the impetus for reform, the process of reform, trends in the 1960s, the 1970s and beyond, and future directions. References follow each paper. (DB)