Higher Education Reforms and the Academic Profession from a Comparative Perspective

In the 21st century, when the universalization of higher education demands diversified students to be more involved in study and rather than in learning, the ideal of scholarship is expected to transform toward both teaching orientation and study orientation, with a focus on the teaching and study process in the classrooms with a result of being a research, teaching and study nexus (R-T-S nexus). In reality, however, it is apparent that the scholarship of research orientation persists throughout the world. This paper attempts to shed light on the given theme by making analysis of the results gained from three international surveys on the academic profession. Higher education is defined by the mutual interaction among several important factors, including social change, knowledge development, the national government's higher education policy, and the academic profession's identity and initiative in the process of reacting to the effects of these factors. In this picture, the priority of reform converges to the teaching and study process in which academics' teaching ability and students' study ability are focal. The Humboldtian model is useful, not only for students at the stage of elite higher education in the second age, but also for the counterparts at the stage of universalization in the third age, although it needs to be modified so as to be suitable to the situation at the universal stage of higher education development. Comparison between academics' preferences in teaching and research orientations by country in the CAP survey reveals that convergence on the research orientation has increased, at least in advanced countries. The universalization of higher education will need more of a teaching orientation among academics worldwide, to support students' study and so the current trend toward a research orientation must necessarily be confronted in the context of R-T-S nexus in many countries, especially in Japan.