Sex differences in human performance have been documented across a wide array of human endeavours. Males tend to exhibit higher performance in intellectually demanding and competitive domains, and this difference tends to be more pronounced the higher the level of performance. Here, we analyse publishing performance for the whole population of…

Using an analytical-interpretative autoethnographic account of my move from a professional staff manager to an academic manager in a university, I highlight how career transitions can result in othering due to the academic' professional divide, the strength of academic identity in disciplines and the continued role of women being in positions of…

In many countries around the world, the number of new doctorate recipients graduating from universities has grown sharply in the past few decades, but the implications of this expansion for the employment situation of doctorate recipients remain largely unexplored in longitudinal studies. In Germany, as in various other countries, the expansion of…

The proportion of women tends to decrease the higher the academic rank, following a global pattern. Sweden has taken comprehensive measures to decrease this gap across 30 years, and many countries are following a similar path. Yet today only 27% of faculty with the rank of professor in Sweden are female. A common explanation is that academia is…

While researchers and policymakers have sought to understand factors that affect research productivity of universities and entrepreneurship activities of graduates, we know little about the graduates in the workforce who engage in knowledge creation. This study employs data from an alumni impact survey (N = 12,504) and alumni database of a large…

The paper aims to examine the socio-demographic profiles of international scholars in Slovakia and the motivations which local higher education institutions have in hiring them. Slovakia is understood as a model semi-peripheral country in the global system of knowledge production. We rely on data from the Slovak Register of Higher Education…

Despite the wealth of literature on academic work, roles and identities, the meaning of being an academic often does not go beyond such pre-defined and separate roles of teacher, researcher, academic, professional and manager. Consequently, our understanding of academic work is limited. This article explores the holistic meaning of being an…

Research excellence has been the main thrust of higher education reforms in several countries, but its translation into coherent policies has proved to be controversial. Literature has delved into the role exerted by contextual factors and individual characteristics in the adoption of behaviours inspired by social values. Our study aims at…

We look into the question whether heterogeneity stemming from research orientation, gender, or disciplinary and cultural differences with their PhD supervisors helps or hampers academics' careers. Based on a sample of 248 academics at two leading European universities of technology, we combine multinomial logit models and sequential logit models…

This paper analyses the determining factors of PhDs' career success. Earnings have been used as an objective measure, and a subjective measure of success was constructed based on the individuals' assessments of broader aspects of their job position. When analysing the data by field of knowledge and gender, it was found that males and PhD holders…

Teaching approaches in higher education have already been the subject of a considerable body of research. An important contribution was Prosser and Trigwell's development of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI). The present study aims to map out the approaches to teaching profiles of teachers in higher education on the basis of their scores…

The UK higher education system receives the second largest number of Chinese overseas students in the world. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data used in this study show that the total number of Chinese graduates (at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels) increased from around 6000 at the beginning of the twenty-first century to…

This article argues that the analysis of changes in the social position of women needs to distinguish between levels of social practice and psychic subjectification. The argument draws on Lacan's conception of the relationship between subjectivity, desire and sexual difference to describe gendered aspects of subjectivity embedded within the…