The academic profession in Argentina: características and trends in the context of a mass higher education system

FERNÁNDEZ LAMARRA NORBERTO; MARQUINA ,MÓNICA

The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative and Quantitative Perspectives.

Hiroshima University

Año: 2008; p. 331 - 352

The objective of this paper is to trace a panorama of the academic profession (AP) in Argentina, taking as a starting point available preliminary data obtained through the application of the survey to the Argentine case ?The Changing Academic Profession: an International Research Project?  (CAP).    In order to understand this data it is necessary to place it contextually. To this end a rapid panorama is first drawn up of the expansion of the Argentine higher education system in the last few decades, its impact on the emerging academic profession and the evolution of both ? system and AP ? up to the present time. In that framework we highlight some of the policies put into practice during the 1990s, which created new conditions for the academic work. These policies very probably had bearing on the subject of our study, and may therefore contribute to the interpretation of the responses obtained.    Subsequently some methodological considerations are made concerning the application of the instrument and the design of the sample in order to put forth some preliminary results on the basis of the information obtained to date. We present results in four aspects of the AP: 1) Degrees obtained; 2) interests; 3) satisfaction and 4) reference.  We believe that by means of these aspects it is possible to identify some characteristics of the work done by a wide range of Argentine academics, observing in some cases the impact of recent changes. Although it is premature to put forward definitive conclusions, this paper closes with the enumeration of some trends which would appear to be becoming manifest in the present.