ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the harsh reality of pursuing and benefiting from an academic career, in an increasingly pressurized environment. Academics have long been implicit lifelong learners in respect of their research activity, although many would not consider using the term in this way. Academics who are also members of other professions are also used to an externally-verifiable notion of continuing professional development. Continuing professional development is arguably a term related to lifelong learning. Both concepts are often poorly defined and subject to 'political' interpretation, with lifelong learning high on the government's agenda. The technical school was not an institution with high academic standards, but it was better than nothing, and it provided an entree to another world. To be successful in research one had not only to learn about what was happening elsewhere in the world, but to be ready to compete with academics from the United States and elsewhere.