Promoting the Australian Academic Profession

Abstract

In a context of the casualisation of the workforce, intensification of workloads, increased technology-mediated teaching and increased research expectations, the authors explored the changing face of Australian academic service – to the university, the community and the profession/discipline. When viewed through the lens of academic promotion, academic service in the Australian higher education sector is ill defined, and poorly described in comparison to the Research and Teaching elements of an academic’s role. While the authors saw some evidence of Australian universities paying greater attention to the ‘Service’ Domain, there still remains inconsistent and ambiguous documentation and guidance provided by universities about the Service Domain. From their review of promotion documentation of 24 percent of Australian universities, the authors identified the following elements which universities could provide to assist academics to develop their applications with respect to their service achievements: descriptions of expected practices in each area of service, and at each academic level; details of evidence that can be used to demonstrate the practices and their impact; and case studies which demonstrate the practices, evidence and impact expected at each academic level in the domain.