The conditions of change in higher education, that affect their lives and their professional identities, are marked by the ongoing transformations related to: (a) The systems of production, access, disclosure and recognition of knowledge in the post-industrial societies (Lyotard, 1984; Gibbons, et al, 1995). (b) The digitization of information that shifts attention from purposes, values and ideals to "the media and techniques to obtain efficient [optimum] results" (Marshall, 1998:9). (c) The combination of new economical perspectives with the "explosion" of information and communication technologies that are favouring the apparition of new forms of organization for higher education (Hanna and associates, 2000). (d) The generalization of the use of the digital information and communication technologies that enable and demand new ways of teaching and learning, selection, appraisal and interpretation of the information and, therefore, of assessing the process and the results of the learning (Hanna and associates 2000¸ Jochems and others 2004). (f) The characteristics, needs and expectations of new generations of students who are digital natives in front of their analogical (digital immigrant) teachers. (g) The full incorporation of women to a space traditionally reserved for the men (Morley and Walsh, 1996). (h) In Europe, the construction of the European Space for Higher Education (Bologna Declaration). All these changes are putting a considerable pressure on higher education institutions and their personnel (Garrison and Anderson, 2003; McIntosh, 2005, Metcalfe, 2006). For all these reasons, it seems highly important to understand the different situations higher education faculty and researchers are confronting and to analyse the related opportunities and limits of the new situations brought about by these changes.

The papers presented in this symposium are based in studies developed under different research perspectives. Two of them have chosen professional life histories to deeply explore issues related to academic professional lives and the undergoing change in higher institutions; one has use a survey for studying changes in academics’ well-being in work; and one has develop a case study to chart some of the positive ramifications enabled within the European Space for Higher Education.

By putting together a set of research projects focusing on the current working conditions of higher education faculty and researchers, we will be able to deepen our understanding of the impact of ongoing economic, social, cultural, technological and labour change in the life and professional identity of HE faculty and researchers and the consequences for enhancing or inhibiting the excellence of teaching and researching.