Riding the crest of a trough: the commitment of academics in mass higher education

Abstract

Recent reports in the media about the motivation of teachers in United Kingdom higher education have focused on the pressures created by more students, fewer tutors and shrinking resources. Commentators on the changing experience of teachers in higher education note that morale is widely agreed to be low, but also that the commitment of academic staff, regardless of perceptions of morale, is strong. In order to explore this paradox, a small-scale study was undertaken of the attitudes of two groups of academics to their work. Tutors from a large urban post-1992 university and from an FE/HE Institute were found to have negative responses to many aspects of their jobs, but to be firmly committed to teaching. This research appears to support the application of Hertzberg and Hill's theoretical models of job satisfaction to the work of teachers in higher education.