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The central purpose of this work is to present data that evaluates the impact and perspectives of various merit-pay systems directed at Mexican academics. To this end a brief description is provided of recent Mexican higher education evolution, including that of merit-pay programs. It is proposed that faculty merit-pay systems, in the context of several institutional performance-based funding programs, and of a general conditional cash transfer approach to the distribution of public funding, have created a de facto supra-institutional academic rank ladder based on the academic's participation in the highly prestiged and well-remunerated National Researcher's System (SNI), and on the academic's highest degree (HD). Data is presented showing that increasing SNI-HD ranks are associated with less teaching, more research, stronger academic preference for research activities and less institutional involvement. Several collateral negative side-effects of this situation are highlighted and questions are posed in relation to the long-range pertinence of merit-pay systems with the characteristics that are current in the case of Mexican higher education. Keywords Academics * Merit-pay systems * Academic work * Higher education * Mexico, In its modernization process Mexican public higher education has embraced strategies consistent with a globalized market perspective and the new public management approach (Enders et al. 2009). Under these positions [...]

Examination of the gender differences in the job mobility of academic economists and its resulting salary effects reveals that job movement for women tend to be in the downward direction while more men tend to move laterally or even upward. Findings suggests that men make job moves for economic reasons while women move for nonpecuniary reasons.

A study was conducted, to understand the association of a mentor with protege career success on two perspectives, performance and political, in a sample of American academics. The result showed that the amount of mentoring as measured by the number of traditional mentors and other developers predicted achieved rank and the relationship was not mediated by publication productivity.

The modified pay framework for academics has created reflecting salary differences between institutions, which has led to competitive bidding at professorial level and increasing transparency over senior staff pay. The move has also enabled addressing the issue of gender pay gap, where female professors have earned less than male counterparts traditionally.

Advice for academics on how to prepare for retirement both financially and socially. Tips include starting thinking early about pensions, making plans to keep both mentally and physically active, keeping up to date in your field, recognising the continued value of your expertise, and creating a network of people who might be interested in employing you when you retire from your academic career.

An analysis of the different attitudes towards retirement taken by academics. Jim Godfrey, who retired from his position as a senior lecturer and admissions tutor at Bradford University's chemical engineering department, has spent the six years since his retirement at age 65 traveling and has no desire to return to academia. However, other academics have no desire to retire when they reach 65 and are keen to carry on working.

The plans by the U.K. government to tax the offshore income of non-domiciled residents or to charge them an excessive tax fee are bound to have an impact on the recruitment of top academics. U.K. has been an attractive destination for academics across the world owing to the strength of the pound and the stable tax regime, but this is all bound to change now.

John Denham, the Universities Secretary has advised that academics should be compensated equally irrespective of whether they produce research papers or provide advice and evidence in national interest to the government.

Studies reveal that there could be a potential revolution in the career options for all U.K. academics as a key reform of one of higher education's main pension schemes could help to keep older academics work longer. Several changes introduced in 2007 in the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) for academic and related staff is discussed.

Several Australian universities in 2007 are altering academics with poor research records and are offering high pay to top professors from other institutions. This is done in preparation for the introduction of a new research quality framework.

Academics earn more per hour than the majority of other highly qualified workers, but put in more overtime than most other professionals in the public sector, according to a report by academics at the Institute of Education and Reading University Business School. Higher education academics get paid more than lawyers, accountants and pharmacists, but less than dentists and doctors.

Many academics do not take holidays in the summer, preferring instead a busman's holiday, working in the laboratory or on a PC, though for many there is no choice but to work.

University fees are equal to one quarter of the salary of a mid-range junior academic, according to a survey of university nur series by Times Higher. The survey found the median monthly charge was GBP 586.30.

An Academy of Sciences modernisation plan aimed to raise salaries threefold would be thousands of Russian researchers sacked. Architects of the plan are hoping it will stop the Russian brain drain by retaining young high flyers with salaries which will, by 2008, average GBP 400 to GBP 700 per month.

Academics' private offices are under threat as administrators aim to cut costs by introducing open-plan offices. Universities across the country are ripping down private offices as space costs money, according to Alan Woodruff, head of estates at Glamorgan University and member of the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE).

Hopes of better promotion prospects for academics as the new pay and grading structure is adopted are expected to be dashed, according to a poll by The Times Higher. Almost all university personnel managers taking part said they did not expect academics to be promoted.

Consultancy work is becoming such an integral part of academic life that it could be exerting an influence on the subject specialisms selected by lecturers, according to business expert Des Dearlove. Dearlove contends that many academics in the UK are deliberately selecting work in fields in which there is a big demand for consultants so that they can maximise their earning potential.

The best lecturers in the UK will be entitled to an UKPd10,000 bonus under a restructured National Teaching Fellows scheme. The revamped scheme will also enable groups of academics to apply for study grants of up to UKPd250,000.

It is argued that in the changing world of the university sector in the UK, the elite of academics should have their own personal agents to negotiate better salaries and working conditions. It is suggested that the new, larger unions will not have the time or inclination to deal with requirements of these elite individuals.