ABSTRACT
Often when people start to examine how university life is organized, their understanding progresses through several stages. The first stage is understanding that academic cultures are different from the external “real world” of nonacademic life. University faculty and researchers typically operate with different incentives, interests, and remuneration than participants in other sectors of the workforce. In this respect, the academic labor market and academic contracts represent a subsector of the broader traditional labor market; they are more homogeneous and subject to more uniform rules. When examined internationally, it becomes apparent that wage and contract-related practices in the academic world are quite varied, as are policies and opportunities for earning additional income outside the university. Such practices are described in detail in each of the chapters in this book. It is clear that the academic profession today is not only affected by the salary, contract, and remuneration schemes that operate in each country but increasingly by international trends in a globalized academic world.
