Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor

Academic job satisfaction and motivation: findings from a nationwide study in Portuguese higher education

Academic staff is a key resource in higher education institutions (HEIs) and therefore has a major role in the achievement of the objectives of these institutions. Satisfied and well-motivated academic staff can build a national and international reputation for themselves and their institutions. Moreover, the performance of academic staff impacts student learning. In this context, the study of academic staff job satisfaction and motivation to perform their professional activities becomes crucial, especially as higher education is traversed by multiple changes. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the findings of a nationwide study on satisfaction and motivation of academics. All academics working in Portuguese HEIs were invited to complete a survey online. The data obtained from 4529 academics were extensively analyzed and findings are presented here along with their implications for HEIs in Portugal.

Brain drain and the disenchantment of being a higher education student in Portugal

ABSTRACT The efforts made by most countries to accelerate economic development have included a significant investment in education. It has been argued that investment in education, particularly higher education, was itself a potential factor in economic development. Education has become a relatively easy means of improving access to the labour market. However, in Portugal, the recent trend has been reversed, and the country now faces a growing number of university graduates in several fields of education and training that do not have a job based on their formal qualifications. Despite the differences of unemployment by area of education and training, unemployment of the young skilled has been a problem in recent years. Therefore, following this unemployment trend, there has been growing the exodus of highly skilled professionals from the Portuguese economy, leaving it with a reduced supply of skilled people. This article discusses the employability of graduates from several academic areas and discusses the educational and economic policies that generate a real brain drain.

Academic Strategy in the Emerging University – A Transformational Perspective

We are living in a period of accelerated change at the economic, social and technological levels. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are being traversed by innumerable changes that occur at a more rapid pace than ever before. New models of universities, new values, new behaviours, new knowledge and new technologies are emerging. Recent studies on strategic planning and institutional strategy suggest an evolutionary shift in how institutions are responding to their rapidly changing external environments. These changes, in turn, suggest that the academic structure, work and academic careers are changing or may need to change in significant ways. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to examine the changing nature of academic strategy in the transformational world of higher education and its implications for academic structures, work and careers.

Academic Job Satisfaction and Motivation: Perspectives from a Nation-Wide Study in Public Higher Education Institutions in Portugal

The centrality of the faculty role makes it a primary sculptor of higher education institutions (HEIs). The performance of academic staff such as teachers and researchers has an impact on student learning and implications for the quality HEIs and therefore their contribution to society. Thus the academic staff can, with appropriate support, build a national and international reputation for themselves and for the institution in the professional areas, in research and in publishing.

Transfer investment on education on a free cost basis: some evidence from Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy

For decades, education has been viewed as an instrument for social mobility and also as a tool for economic growth and social development. Over the recent years, we have witnessed an output movement of highly qualified graduates, from peripheral southern Europe to the more developed countries of the EU and OECD. In this article, we analyse the reality of four countries: Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy. In order to examine the socio-economic impact of this brain drain, it will be introduced an estimation using OECD statistics (2014) of the public and private costs to educate a student from primary schooling through a higher education degree. In spite of the differences among these countries’ experiences, there is no doubt that these countries “offered” high qualified workers for free or at a zero cost basis to the “importing” countries.