An edited book

In the past decade or so, many experts have attempted to define the large and diverse cohort of non-teaching staff that encompasses higher education today. Common terms used by universities, government bodies and the media were "non-academic staff, general staff, administrative staff, support staff and professional staff, to name a few (Graham, 2012, p. 438). But, in 2011, the Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) in Australia, through a sector-wide consultation process established a new term to describe its members; professional staff (Graham, 2012). We are aware that the definitions and activities of a professional staff in higher education may vary greatly from country to country. However, for the purpose of this book, Professional Staff will be defined as all staff members of higher education providers that are non-teaching and non-research staff, but who provide support functions for teaching and/or research activities. Examples of 'support functions' include: management; academic learning support; English language support; student counselling; librarian; IT support; laboratory assistance; technical assistance; general administrative functions; and student administration functions such as provision of student advice, student admissions, student enrolments and student graduations.

This volume is part of a 25 volume series titled University Development and Administration Handbook, which address a diverse range of issues in higher education globally. This particular book is focused on issues surrounding professional staff in higher education, from their initial qualifications (as an undergraduate student, if applicable), through to their recruitment, employment, career progression, performance and evaluation, termination of contracts, their work conditions and support, their contributions to the higher education sector and student outcomes, and how the current higher education landscape impact on their work, careers, aspirations and performance.

We would like to invite academics, researchers and professional staff to make their contributions to this volume through case studies, reflection pieces, empirical research, analysis and discussion of the literature and prologues.

We believe that this volume will assist a range of higher education stakeholders, including educators, senior executives, policy makers, government bodies and professional staff themselves to have a better and deeper understanding of the issues involving professional staff in higher education. By uncovering and reflecting on these issues, readers of this volume will be able to identify opportunities, areas for improvement as well as learn from successful encounters.

Professions present themselves as providing a social benefit to society and, reciprocally, the expectation is for the professions to contribute to the accomplishment of important social goals (Jansen & Braddock, 1998 as cited in Padró, Hawke, & Hawke, 2002).  Specifics about the meaning of what a profession is and professionalism have varied over the years and continue to do so (Evans, 2010). To further add to the complexity, some professions face regulatory compliance issues in the form of licensure or other state-defined requirement(s) to denote the state's interest in assuring the public of the practitioner's qualifications and experience as a safeguard to the 'commonweal.'

There are different routes toward preparing well-qualified professionals. These routes are largely determined by decisions academics make regarding content, curriculum alignment, in-class and out-of-class learning experiences, pedagogical techniques, integration of research with practice, and philosophical approaches toward the profession. But the key to the relationship ultimately rests with the value employers place on the focus, emphasis and balance between the 'academic' and 'practical' in relationship to their own expectations for skills graduates must have to garner their interest (cf. Beaver, 1992).

Particularly in the higher education sector, where professional staff represents a substantial cost for institutions and in countries like Australia, they also outnumber academic staff in many institutions, professionals "hold much of the systemic knowledge, intellectual capital, required to ensure the functioning of the university" (Graham, 2012, p. 439). In additional, the increasing professionalization and qualification of university professional staff have impacted on the roles they currently perform, as more professionals now occupy senior executive positions within universities; positions there were before occupied by senior academics (Szekeres, 2011). Also, the boundaries between some professional and academic roles have also blurred, creating a sub-category; "the para-academic – staff who specialise in one aspect of academic practice" (Macfarlane, 2011; Graham, 2012, p. 439). Despite of the importance roles they perform, the contribution they make to educational institutions and to societies as a role, their work, aspirations, work conditions and support are largely unexplored in the literature and research.

This is a tentative structure of the book:

We intend for the book to have approximately 200,000 words and anticipate about 27 main chapters in this book.

Each chapter will total be a maximum of 5000 and 7000 words, including references, tables, appendices, figures, and bios. The editors are interested in a variety of chapters from authors affiliated with a range of higher education institutions across Australia and internationally. We also expect to engage with academic and professional staff from all domains of higher education.

Chapters could be structured as suggested below:

1. Introduction to the topic
2. Overview of the literature (challenges, issues, state of play)
3. Issues within your and/or within a range of institutions
4. 1 or 2 cases of good practices
5. Recommendations or future predictions / future opportunities
6. Please make references to associated interested organisations or professional bodies related to the chapter, including issues for further discussion and reflections in national and international conferences focused on build capacity and address the issues explored in your chapter.

At this stage, professional and academic staff are invited to submit a chapter proposal (up to 500 words, including references) that explains how the proposal fits with the focus and scope of the book. Authors of accepted proposals will be invited to produce a full chapter as per timeline below, and receive a detailed author guidelines and submission procedure to follow.

Here is a list of possible topics and content that could be explored by authors (most of them are relevant to the book sections above):

• The impact of the rapid changes in the higher education sector, nationally and internationally, on professional staff
• Governance and policy
• The impact of personnel policies and regulations on professional staff
• Professional development activities
• Professional advancement and career opportunities
• Evaluation of professional staff performance
• Institutional and external support for professional staff
• Types of Employment
• Recruitment, contract and outsourcing
• Termination and non-renewal of contract
• Labour relations
• Setting compensation and compensation structure
• Internal communications and relations
• Current good practice in record keeping
• Inclusion and support of minority groups within the workforce (women, indigenous and diverse religious groups)
• Professionalisation, relationships an identities
• Contribution of professional staff to student outcomes

This book will be of particular importance to those associated with managing and preparing higher education professionals, as well to those in senior management positions, policy makers and related government agencies. It will be of significance to academic faculty and higher education training professionals who are interested in enriching their teaching and students' learning experiences within their disciplines. In addition, those focused on institutional quality enhancement related to the professions, such as curriculum developers, accrediting bodies and policy makers, may find the text useful to provide examples of meaningful ways in which professional staff could further contribute to institutional success and improve student learning outcomes.

Whilst the book is primarily focused on professional staff in higher education, it will also be applicable to professional staff in colleges and industry. As issues surrounding professional staff in higher education is under researched (Graham, 2012), this book could also be of interest to researchers in related field, doctoral supervisors, research departments, academic libraries and institutions in several different countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and English-speaking readers in Continental Europe. The issues addressed by the book are internationally relevant to many different groups of stakeholders and hence potential readers, whether in educational settings or industry.

The editorial team includes experienced authors and editors, and all team members take very seriously their responsibility to facilitate and ensure very high quality scholarship and writing in the book's chapters. The proposals and chapters will be subjected to careful editorial scrutiny and where appropriate authors will be asked by the editors to revise their chapters to highlight clarity and focus. The editors have requested authors to submit a draft of the chapter (as per timeline) in order to provide maximum support for authors at the same time as enhancing the chapters' academic quality. All chapters will be subject to a double-blind peer review process before final acceptance to ensure the highest possible standard of scholarship.

Bio-notes of editors

Dr Carina Bossu

Dr Carina Bossu (BCompSci, MEng, MEdAdmin, PhD, GradCertULT) is a Lecturer (Learning and Teaching) with the Tasmanian Institute of Learning and Teaching (TILT) at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). Her current work and research are primarily focused on Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) in higher education, more specifically issues related to learning, teaching and professional development. Previously, she was a Research Fellow with DEHub at the University of New England, Australia, where her role was to investigate the use and adoption of OER across the Australian higher education sector. In the past 15 years, Carina has worked in several capacities within higher education in Australia and in Brazil, her home country. She is currently teaching in the Graduate Certificate of University Learning and Teaching and has been working on several research projects investigating different aspect of open education within the higher education contexts. Dr Bossu was one of the Guest Editors of the Special Issue on OER Initiatives in Oceania with the Universities and Knowledge Society Journal (RUSC). She has also published and presented widely in a number of national and international conferences. Carina is a reviewer of the British Journal of Educational Technology, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching and a member of the Scientific Editorial Board of the Universities and Knowledge Society Journal (RUSC).

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Assoc Prof Natalie Brown

Associate Professor Natalie Brown (B.Sc (Hons); Dip.Ed; PhD) is the Head of the Tasmanian Institute of Learning and Teaching and Leader of the Curriculum and Quality theme area in the Division of Students and Education at UTAS. Her role encompasses policy, strategy and professional development in the area of learning and teaching, and the promotion of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She has recently led the writing and implementation of the Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT) White Paper, resulting in a new Blended Learning Model being adopted across the Institution. A current project is supporting the measurement of Teaching Performance Expectations for academic staff in the broader context of promoting quality teaching. Natalie is a previous winner of an OLT Teaching Excellence Award.

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