The Changing Nature of the Academic Profession
Method
Each participating country team has obtained a national representative sample of its academic profession. In order to allow international comparisons, all countries address some core groups and conform to the highest standards of sampling and data collection. The project uses a self-administered survey instrument. In order to minimize measurement bias across countries, country teams will maintain a high level of standardization in terms of question order, question wording, response options, reference periods, and layout and formal design. However, cultural patterns and language specifics might require functional rather than formal equivalents. Country teams may design national extensions to the questionnaire. Participating countries ave completed data collection by the end of 2008. Data entry and cleaning will be organized in a central facility in each country. The international data set will be made available by late 2009. All participating countries will have full access to the common data set. The project is democratically coordinated and any member can be contacted for further information. The current international coordinator and hence the first point of contract is:
William K. Cummings, Professor of International Education at The George Washington University, 2134 G St., Washington, D.C., USA. email: wkcum@gwu.edu, phone: 202-994-4698, fax: 202-994-0148