Academic career systems have been in focus lately as a means to attract talented researchers and teachers. In this paper, we compare tenure tracks at three Swedish universities. The analysis relies on qualitative data, including interviews and policy documents, and revolves around three questions: How is the tenure track designed? What were the drivers behind the new tenure track? How is the tenure track designed to handle emerging tensions? We identify three common drivers and rationales: transparency, recruitment of early career researchers and long-term retention of staff. The article ends with a discussion of important considerations that were made when introducing the tenure track. The considerations derive from the tensions between research and teaching, between scope and funding and between the needs of the institution and the rights of the individual. The results are important in an increasingly competitive higher education sector aiming to construct and implement attractive career systems.

Introduction

The entire system of higher education has changed radically during the last decades. This includes for example both changes in the structure of funding as well as increased demands from the labour market. One strategy to adopt to the new conditions is to develop close ties to external organizations such as industry (Clark 1998; Slaughter and Leslie 1997). This paper investigates expectations on, and roles of, researchers from industry, affiliated part time at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In this paper we call these researchers “affiliated faculty”. The questions are, what are the expectations from HEIs as well as from industry on the affiliated faculty? And how does this correspond to the role taken by these affiliated researchers?

Methodology

The paper is based on the results of documentary studies and interviews at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Mälardalen University. In total 27 interviews, including affiliated professors and management from industry and HEI, are undertaken. From this material, a pattern has been distinguished through content analysis (Patton 2002).

Preliminary Results

The interviews reveal that high but divergent expectations are placed on the affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are expected to bring in new experiences and contacts from industry to enrich the university environment. However the process of affiliating a professor is described as very dependent on personal contacts. The affiliated faculty are also a way of promoting the university, making its research and its brand more visible outside academia. By contrast, industry has its primary focus on educational aspects. Industrial partners are, for example, interested in bringing concrete industrial problems that can be used as examples in teaching and learning. Affiliated professors themselves express that one of their missions is to identify the best students for future recruitment. From a personal perspective, the affiliated professors appreciate the possibility of having the time to go deeper into questions that they do not find time for in their ordinary jobs.

Mobility in the form of people moving between academia and surrounding society is one of the most direct and supposedly effective forms of knowledge transfer. Mobility in terms of adjunct faculty from industry is often used by higher education institutions (HEIs) as a means to strengthen research and research education. More seldom are adjunct faculty members used in the development of the curricula of bachelor and master level programmes even though companies collaborating with universities claim that one of the main reasons to collaborate is the connection with education and thus the competence of the future. The main reason to introduce adjunct professors in the higher education system in Sweden in the mid 70?s was to increase resources in research education. This new resource was, and still is, funded by the company where the adjunct professor has his employment. However, the expectations from key stakeholders; the university, the company and the adjunct professor have never been under scope. Furthermore, the actual balance between research and education and the overall work-load situation for adjunct professors has never before been investigated. In this paper, the situation for adjunct professors has been studied at two HEIs with the purpose to investigate their balance of work, their interests and their possible intention to change the balance to more education at bachelor and master level. In addition, the stakeholders, i.e. the ?parent? companies and the two HEIs were asked the same questions. Data from 31 interviews have been used in the study. The analysis is building on previous research in e.g. knowledge transfer [e.g.1], entrepreneurial universities [e.g. 3], collaboration in higher education [4], academic drift [5] and from policy reports. The results show that both industry and adjunct professors have an interest in education at bachelor and master levels. The bottleneck is, as always, lack of time as the adjunct professors normally only spend one day a week at the university. Furthermore, the HEIs have other expectations, such as research and even research funding from the adjunct professor and his/her company. The adjunct professors represent a resource which is expended but perhaps not expediently spent due to stakeholders? different expectations.

The question raised in this paper is: what are the strategies and expectations on affiliated faculty from HEI management? The paper presents a comparative study between two Swedish HEIs both operating in the field of technology. 23 interviews, of which 11 with HEI management and 12 with affiliated professors, have been undertaken. Results show that the faculty is growing organically and less strategic than expected considering it being a high profile issue at both HEIs. Tensions are found, concerning for example mobility and the relation between affiliated and regular faculty. As well as on whether it is the company or the individual that is in focus. Results reveal that high but divergent expectations from different levels of management are placed on the affiliated faculty. The study has also shown how affiliated faculty can be used as a strategic tool in different phases of the development of a HEI.

In this paper we are investigating how career tracks are being developed at Swedish higher education institutions in the aftermath of a new autonomy reform, launched in 2011. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and documentary studies from three Swedish universities of which one is a business private, one is a technical university and one is a comprehensive university. All three universities have introduced tenure track systems based on promotion criteria. The paper revolves around some of the tensions/key issues we have identified in relation to tenure track systems. These include the scope of the tenure track in relation to other academic posts, the use of hard (metrics) or soft (peer review) promotion criteria, the division of academic tasks, and mobility (international and across industries). The results show big differences between the universities, e.g. regarding the scope of the tenure track and the use of promotion criteria.