Of Academics and Professionals: The Difference Is in the Pay

1. IntroductionIn 2012, Philip Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College edited a book of readings called Paying the Professoriate: A Global Comparison of Compensation and Contracts. The volume could not have come at a better moment. It provides an international comparison of salaries in twenty-eight countries, across a wide variety of universities. Some of the findings are enlightening, although not surprising. In lesser developed countries, such as Armenia, Russia, and China, academics earn a very low pay and are compelled to rely on moonlighting in order to significantly supplement their income. In some cases, salaries are so dismal that university professors need to more than double their pay just to make ends meet. Even in countries in which pay is relatively more substantial, academics hold a second job, such as consulting or even something totally unrelated to their academic credentials. Obviously there is a brain drain from countries such as India, China, Russia, and others to countries, such as Canada, the United States, Germany, Australia, and similar. But the most damming finding appears the fact that salaries in academia lag behind the pay received by other professionals, such as lawyers, medical doctors, counselors, psychologists, engineers, and architects. This appears true across the board, including developed countries. Even academics who teach and research in law, business, or engineering tend to be underpaid relative to those who actually practice law, business, or engineering.The authors of the volume on academic pay consider that the viability of the education systems is contingent on the ability to recruit talented and capable academics. It stands to reason that in order to produce high quality research and scholarly work, one has to rely on outstanding talent. In order to have competent and well-rounded graduates, able to function as engaged, productive, and responsible citizens, one has to ensure excellence in teaching. This obviously requires the and the brightest of academics.In Canada and the United States, business schools are already paying a market differential to attract professors to teach disciplines such as Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Management and Human Resources. Business professors are invariably paid more than they counterparts teaching English Literature, Philosophy, or History. In accounting, starting salaries for young and inexperienced assistant professors routinely edge above $100,000/year; yet, it is increasingly difficult to find qualified accounting graduates holding a doctorate and willing to engage in a career of teaching and research. Accountants can easily double this amount by taking a job with an accounting firm, or any other successful corporation.Philip Altbach seems to conclude that by underpaying university professors relative to other professionals, one is jeopardizing the health and viability of the higher education system as a whole. The entire analysis and discussion that leads towards this conclusion is predicated on the assumption that academia is yet another form of professional activity. This begs the question of whether academics are indeed professionals, and if their activity and pay should be compared to those of other professionals.This paper claims that academics are quite different from most professional categories, although they are many common characteristics. The desire to compare academic pay to those of other professionals is humanly understandable, yet trying to turn academics into regular professionals would have far-reaching consequences from a wider social perspective. Emphasizing monetary rewards at the expense of intrinsic drivers would most likely attract the best and the brightest, but it would also change the nature and structure of the academic output. The next section compares and contrasts the characteristics of universities and those of professional organizations. …

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