An academic career ¨C once considered ¡°highly desirable¡± with ¡°many perks and a robust future¡± ¨C is steadily losing its appeal, a new report has warned.

¡°Profound¡± shifts in demographics, higher education participation and graduation rates, and funding streams for research, innovation and education has resulted in academic careers changing across Europe, ¡°both in terms of their perception and their reality¡±, according to the paper from the European University Association (EUA).

The representative group called on its 800 members to implement reform, based around five principles for ¡°attractive and sustainable¡± careers in academia.

Pointing to building pressures including funding cuts, precarious contracts and growing workplaces, EUA vice-president Ivanka Popovi? writes in the report¡¯s foreword that early-career academics in particular are ¡°increasingly questioning whether universities can offer them attractive, long-term employment¡±.

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¡°At the same time, universities themselves are breaking down walls and opening up to more flexible and permeable career paths, for example by hiring personnel from outside the university sector,¡± she continues.

¡°All of these developments necessitate a re-evaluation of how academic careers are structured and supported, in order to ensure they remain attractive and sustainable in the long term.¡±

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The principles identified by the EUA are: opportunities for professional development; diversity and inclusivity; a balance of competition and collegiality; investment in early-career academics; and ¡°societal embeddedness¡±.

Institutions should establish ¡°clearly elaborated and communicated¡± professional development policies, the EUA recommends, as well as ¡°fair and clear¡± policies for the recognition of academic achievement. To avoid ¡°unnecessary precarity¡±, the umbrella body adds, universities should offer ¡°competitive contracts and salaries, as well as appropriate appointment and promotion procedures based on a broad and balanced set of assessment criteria¡±.

Universities should ensure that access to academic careers is ¡°permeable, equitable and inclusive¡±, employing a broad range of evaluation criteria to ¡°adequately acknowledge the contributions of diverse academic profiles to the achievement of the university¡¯s goals¡±. Establishing flexible career paths, meanwhile, could better enable researchers to transition between academia, industry and the public sector.

Although some competition ¡°is necessary to achieve academic quality¡±, the EUA report says, universities should aim to create ¡°an ambitious yet supportive academic culture¡±, achievable through the recognition of academic citizenship and leadership and the provision of ¡°continuous support¡± from the university across all stages of the academic career.

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For early-career researchers, institutions should aim to be ¡°more creative and less risk-averse in providing long-term career opportunities¡±, says the EUA, while maintaining ¡°clear and transparent career paths, with honest information, merit-based criteria and equal opportunities¡±. The university group also urged institutions to ensure reasonable workloads for early-career scholars in order to avoid burnout.

To fulfil the final principle, ¡°societal embeddedness¡±, universities should encourage the alignment of academic careers with the institution¡¯s societal goals, investing in internal services such as human resources and training programmes to do so. Societal impact and outreach should also form a key component of career assessment, the EUA says.

Universities cannot resolve academic precarity alone, Popovi? acknowledged in a statement, adding that the ¡°attractiveness and adequacy of academic careers depends to a considerable degree on adequate funding, which depends on external factors that are beyond the immediate control of universities¡±.

However, she added that there are many actions that universities could take to ensure the academic career path remains attractive.

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emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com