Author Description

This year the Research Institute for Higher Education in Hiroshima University hosted an international conference in close collaboration with Hijiyama University. The main purpose of the 2008 conference was to enable the participants to give preliminary country/regional reports based on their national/regional surveys. This publication reports the proceedings of the conference. The following papers are presented at the conference: (1) International Implications of the Changing Academic Profession in Japan (Akira Arimoto); (2) The Context for the Changing Academic Profession: a Survey of International Indicators (William K. Cummings); (3) The Changing Academic Profession in Canada: Exploring Themes of Relevance, Internationalization, and Management (Amy Scott Metcalfe); (4) The Changing Academic Profession in the United States: 2007 (Martin Finkelstein and William Cummings); (5) The Academic Profession in England: Still Stratified after All These Years? (William Locke); (6) Changes in the Finnish Academic Profession Reflect Reforms in Higher Education (Timo Aarrevaara and Seppo Holtta); (7) Academic Staff in Germany: "Per Aspera Ad Astra?" (Ulrich Teichler); (8) The Changing Academic Profession in Italy: Accounts from the Past, First Insights from the Present (Michele Rostan); (9) The Australian Academic Profession: a First Overview (Hamish Coates, Leo Goedegebuure, Jeannet Van Der Lee and Lynn Meek); (10) Governance and Decision-Making Related to Academic Activities: The Case of Higher Educational Institutions in Malaysia (Muhammad Jantan and Morshidi Sirat); (11) a Preliminary Review of the Hong Kong cap Data (Gerard A. Postiglione and Hei Hang Hayes Tang); (12) Progress of the Academic Profession in Mainland China (Hong Chen); (13) Analyses of the Educational Backgrounds and Career Paths of Faculty in Higher Education Institutions in Beijing Municipality, China (Yan Fengqiao and Chen Yuan); (14) The Changing Academic Profession in an Era of University Reform in Jap