The purpose of our research is to present the results of comparative analysis for academic remuneration and contracts across the world. An analysis is based on the results of a project which is a joint effort of Higher School of Economics, Russia; Center for International Education (Boston College, USA) and 28 country experts (project details are available at http://acarem.hse.ru).

University faculty and researchers typically operate with different incentives, interests, and remuneration than participants in other sectors of the workforce. In this respect, the academic labour market and academic contracts represent a subsector of the broader traditional labor market; they are more homogenous and subject to more uniform rules. At the same time when examined more internationally, it becomes apparent that wage and contract-related practices in the academic world are quite varied, as are policies and opportunities for earning additional income outside university. Such practices have been described in detail in each of the chapters in this book. It is clear that the academic profession today is not only affected by the salary, contract, and remuneration schemes that operate in each country but increasingly by international trends in an increasingly globalized academic world.

After reviewing these differences, one begins to look for what different national practices have in common? Are there typical models? What features do they share?  The analysis in this chapter reflects a review of common elements and differences we have observed in the data collected by our 28 country experts (see list of countries at: http://acarem.hse.ru/about). In this presentation we summarize and compare several characteristics of the academic sector. Next, we turn to data about faculty, show the percentage, that they constitute in total labor force, their workload in terms of student per full-time faculty and distribution of faculty by academic rank. Third, we analyze faculty salaries in international PPP US dollars, in relation to GDP per capita and the differentiation by academic rank. Finally, we summarize a survey of our experts on the use of fringe benefits across different countries in order to weigh the importance of different components of remuneration packages beyond basic salary.

One of the central questions of our analysis was whether academic profession is attractive enough to attract and retain talent in different countries. It’s broader than whether academic and non-academic salaries are comparable. Indeed, as our study shows that  academic earnings often include supplemental compensation for extra activities (e.g., teaching overload, research, consultancy, industry collaborations), as well as non-pecuniary benefits (long vacation, prestige, social benefits, etc.). In some countries, salary alone will not even provide a middle class income (allowing for the fact that middle class is defined differently in each country). In some countries (Mexico and Ethiopia are examples) the basic salary may not support an individual let alone a family but provides a professional and social status that can be leveraged to earn additional income by teaching in multiple institutions or through a non-academic professional activity.

1. Paying the Professoriate. A Global Comparison of Compensation and Contracts (Edited by Philip Altbach, Liz Reisberg, Maria Yudkevich, Gregory Androushchak, Iván Pacheco), Routledge, 2012. 2. Project data are available at: http://acarem.hse.ru