The Impact of the Steady State on the Professional Lives of Academics.

contra the environment. The basic difference is that between the Anglo-Saxon type of universities and the continental one as exemplified by Germany and Sweden. If autonomy is of such crucial value to university organisation, how do systems with a low degree of autonomy manage to survive and develop? Jf autonomy is the value of university organisation, are systems with a low degree of autonomy to be considered inferior to systems with a high degree? Of course not. Institutional autonomy varies between different areas of activity. A high degree of autonomy within purely academic matters, like the basic principles governing research and the basic principles governing instruction, is a sine qua non for university organisation. No university can operate without the institutionalisation of the principle of academic freedom. But in other areas of activity like recruitment of staff, physical construction, the organisation of departments and schools, and the principles of cur-ricula, a high degree of autonomy contra the government or the state is not the value of the system. The value of university organisation is professionalism or academic competence. Autonomy is one way to safeguard that value, but it is not the only one. Whereas the Anglo-Saxon model protects the institution of professionalism by means of autonomy, the continental European type protects academic competence by means of influence over the decisions of central authorities which govern the life of these universities. Autonomy is vital to the survival of the university system; however, even more important is the protection of professionalism and that institution may not only be challenged from the outside as Ger-man 36 and Danish 37 experiences show. Introduction The great majority of contemporary academics commenced their careers in a professional environment which was dramatically different from that which surrounds us today. They experienced what appeared to be unbounded growth in student enrolments, budgets and the size and numberof institutions offering post-secondary education. Governments and electors shared a common faith in the worth of higher education, if not for its own sake at least as the key to economic and social development. It was a period of confident expansionism which offered the academic profession many rewards in terms of job mobillty, rapid promotion, salary increases and a higher level of community regard than it had been accustomed to receiving.