Whatever Happened to Professorial Prestige in the Academy? Where is the Academic Freedom and the Shared Governance? A Series of Solutions to Begin to Reclaim Academic Professorial Prestige

Abstract

This chapter explores and addresses the current status of the professorship in higher education. The authors explore how the prestige of the professorship has dwindled and as a result has changed the overall trajectory of the professor as an active and ongoing integral part that is the essential essence of the academy. This chapter picks up from the research article initially published by Mutisya and Osler in 2014 as well as the work published by the same two authors in 2013. The 2013 article involved an in-depth analysis on the professorate from a diverse number of currently employed professors. The research ultimately addressed the need for a “Conceptual Framework for Faculty as Academic Leaders in the Academy.” This chapter extends the initial research into an active discourse on current problems facing the professorate and solutions that can be enacted to reclaim the lost prestige and authority that the position of professor once had in higher education.