Professional renewal as a condition of institutional change: Rethinking academic work

This article adopts a polemical stance in arguing that the new ublic management of higher education has failed to address the changing social conditions within which universities are located. The solutions offered by the new public management are thus part of the problem, not part of the solution. What is required is a sense of professional renewal whereby academic workers re-orientate themselves to a changing world of increased individualisation and uncertainty and adopt a pro-active stance to institutional change. The article highlights the implications of such a stance in terms of a professional reorientation towards alternative forms of association, a renewal of moral agency, and an emphasis on the centrality of learning.