The new academic generation

by Martin J. Finkelstein

"American colleges and universities are poised at the edge of a remarkable transformation. But while rapid technological changes and increasingly intense competition for funding are widely recognized as signs of a new era, there has also been an unprecedented though silent demographic change in the profile of the faculty. In The New Academic Generation, higher education researchers Martin Finkelstein, Robert Seal, and Jack Schuster focus on the changing face of academe, as women, foreign-born, and minority scholars enter the professoriate in larger numbers and as alternatives to full-time tenure-eligible appointments take hold. Looking at who will teach at American colleges and universities in the future and examining their roles and responsibilities, the authors argue that the new generation will usher in an era of dramatic change with profound long-term implications. Finkelstein, Seal, and Schuster base their analysis on the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty conducted by t