ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the major milestones of the academic career in European universities, despite huge ongoing transformations and reform packages implemented throughout European higher education systems, remain the same. In interviews, academics often refer to the stratification as 'a two class-society,' 'a caste system,' a 'pyramid structure,' or even more often as 'a feudal society': 'The relation can be very feudal—young academics are forced to write doctoral dissertation on a topic that one has neither knowledge nor interest in. Modest academic salaries in most European higher education systems used to be accompanied by working in less stressful working environments. The academic labor market is becoming highly competitive at all levels rather than, as traditional, in lower academic ranks only. The competition in academic settings means most often measurable research outputs expected from academics for particular time periods or for particular stages of the academic career.
