ABSTRACT
In contemporary global environments there is a sense in which the academic profession is increasingly embedded within layers of relationships, within and between institutions, and across continents. In UK, institutions are under pressure to respond to external drivers such as demand for a widening of participation in higher education, expectations of more flexible modes of delivery, the integration of employability skills into the curriculum, and participation in knowledge exchange and regional agendas. In UK, 54.9" of institutions' expenditure was on staff costs in 2014/15. Middlehurst summarises the range of possible responses by institutions to contextual factors as being tactical, adaptive and regenerative. Individual institutions are left with the challenge of how to achieve an appropriate relationship between a diversification of institutional activity and staff who may be supporting this in innovative ways. The Higher Education Academy study explored ways in which institutions could support faculty undertaking a broader range of activity, collectively and individually, at different stages of their careers.
