Introduction; Global Challenges, Local Responses in Higher Education: An Introduction; Part 1: Academic Profession Coarsely Ground: Developing the Czech System of Research Evaluation; Knowledge Society/Economy and Managerial Changes: New Challenges for Portuguese Academics; Croatian Academics and University Civic Mission Integration: Possibilities and Constraints; Crossing the Borders: Investigating Social and Economic Forces Shaping International Academic Mobility International Academic Mobility; Part 2: Research Training A Career Outside the Academy? Doctorate Holders in the Finnish Professional Labour Market; Early Career Researchers Training: The Construction and Maintenance of Academic Prestige in Changing Environments; Participation as a Form of Socialisation How a Research Team Can Support Phd Students in Their Academic Path; Part 3: Institutional Governance Strategic Actor-Hood and Internal Transformation: The Rise of the 'quadruple-helix university'?; The Permanent Liminality Transition and Liminal Change in the Italian University: A Theoretical Framework and Early Evidences; Between Western Ideals and Post-Confl ict Reconstruction: Meaning and Perceptions of Higher Education in the Western Balkans; Mapping Portuguese Institutional Policies on Access Against the European Standards and Guidelines.

The volume offers state-of-the art contributions in the intersection of academic profession, research training and institutional governance. They reflect the profound interest of contemporary researchers in the questions of how the contemporary higher education reforms across Europe affect university governance and especially the roles and functions of academics. The volume includes several contributions from the peripheral and developing higher education systems of Central and South-East Europe; hence, attempting to rebalance the European profile of higher education research and at the same time contribute to the most salient debates in the field. This book confirms, once again, that the higher education research landscape is a diverse and rich one. At the same time, these diverse cases have at least one commonality - the fact that even though they are located in different higher education systems, they address issues that, albeit as a rule context-specific, can be found in all parts of Europe and beyond. Certainly, the local responses to the hereby addressed global challenges represent a mere snapshot of a broader landscape the European higher education dynamics is. Temporary higher education reforms across Europe affect university governance and especially the roles and functions of academics. The volume includes several contributions from the peripheral and developing higher education systems of Central and South-East Europe; hence, attempting to rebalance the European profile of higher education research and at the same time contribute to the most salient debates in the field. This book confirms, once again, that the higher education research landscape is a diverse and rich one. At the same time, these diverse cases have at least one commonality - the fact that even though they are located in different higher education systems, they address issues that, albeit as a rule context-specific, can be found in all parts of Europe and beyond. Certainly, the local responses to the hereby addressed global challenges represent a mere snapshot of a broader landscape the European higher education dynamics is.