PhD Project: Working Conditions and Career Trajectories of Academics
Reference: UI/BD/154289/2022 (protocol FCT and IS-UP)
Supervisor: Carlos Manuel Gonçalves (IS-UP); co-supervisor: Virgílio Borges Pereira (IS-UP)
Timeline: March 2023-December 2026
Abstract: This doctoral research aims, on the one hand, to understand and analyze the major transformations that have taken place in public higher education institutions within the framework of public policies and educational reforms targeting the sector, and, on the other hand, to understand how these transformations impact the working conditions and career trajectories of academics. Based on a comprehensive and interpretive qualitative approach, the research seeks to capture the meanings, representations, and experiences attributed by social actors to contemporary dynamics in higher education. Methodologically, the study will conduct semi-structured interviews with faculty members from a university and a polytechnic institute, focusing on their representations of their career trajectories over time and their current working conditions, as well as interviews with higher education union representatives and top managers of the institutions under analysis.
End beneficiaries/target population: i) Tenured and contract faculty in public higher education (from a university and a polytechnic institute); ii) union representatives in higher education; iii) top managers of the institutions targeted by the study.
