Having an academic midlife crisis? Don’t just coast to retirement

This hit piece reads like a Tom Sharpe novel- full of cliches and stereotypes. I don't think this author understands academia, has much respect for it, and it's not an 'industry'. Yes, there is some 'deadwood', but also specialisation, tenure, and collegiality are essential for research. Market forces, by contrast, have sent UK Universities to the brink and morale is terrible. Research (and teaching) is not a business but a public good.

I’ve seen this too often and even have to manage some of these clowns. Hopefully the coming downturn might solve the problem as they’ll be top of my list should redundancies occur.

There's two sides to every story and, while I'm not disputing the cases in this piece, we have to look at the fact that many if not most institutions, in the UK anyway, provide limited incentive for staff not to work strictly to contract. I went through the promotion process once and, while successful, it was so degrading that I have no desire to repeat the experience. I have colleagues who gave above and beyond to the Dean, with promises of promotion to Chair strongly suggested but never formalised with the prospect snatched away when they were no longer of use to him. Then there's the fast declining quality of students - mainly from overseas markets, from undergrad to PhD - who are sent to our office doors as if they have any academic ability at all. There's the demands to turn around large quantities of marking in less than a week to satisfy student satisfaction scores. I know colleagues who've simply given up and just give failing students 52 because the alternative is they'll haunt us with resits until we buckle. If there's widespread staff malaise, universities must take much of the blame.

I am glad it is all this simple. Good girls / guys and then bad girls / guys. Their personality and personal circumstances play no role in any of it, nor does the nature of the institution or the way they are being managed. If they do one thing badly, they apparently do everything badly. A very refreshing perspective!