Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path
A career in academics entails far beyond teaching. Being an academician is a very good job. The freedom to think creatively and learn is priceless. In addition, an academician working towards a PhD goes through intellectually stimulating experience to be shared. Having a PhD is a must to all acade...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/1/Developing%20Professional%20Track%20towards%20Excellence%20in%20Academician.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848840577301348352 |
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| author | Jusoff, Kamaruzaman Abu Samah, Siti Akmar |
| author_facet | Jusoff, Kamaruzaman Abu Samah, Siti Akmar |
| author_sort | Jusoff, Kamaruzaman |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A career in academics entails far beyond teaching. Being an academician is a very good job. The freedom to think
creatively and learn is priceless. In addition, an academician working towards a PhD goes through intellectually
stimulating experience to be shared. Having a PhD is a must to all academics since the PhD experience is about much
more than learning to do deep work in some technical area of expertise and being constructively critical. The key is to
figure out ways of moving between the different facets of the job without becoming too crazy. In another aspect, an
academician is most likely to encounter his role model in teaching, research and professional service environments
which are the platforms in pursuit towards excellence. In fact, these are the three main areas within which a faculty
member must demonstrate excellence and achievement in order to be promoted: research, teaching and professional
service. Indeed, there may be an array of promotion tracks to fit such different career paths; these tracks may have
different requirements for promotion. It is critically important that the junior faculty member be familiar with the
requirements of their particular track early in the course of their career. He should find out the relevant requirements
and expectations for promotion and be thinking about these matters from an early point in his career, rather than near
the end when the promotion clock is ticking. This paper also focuses on the significance of getting a PhD, sharing good
lessons and experiences during doctorate training, and giving practical job strategy description and academic solutions
for a career roadmap towards excellence. The paper is written from the perspective of the authors, the former who has
survived the fast track promotion process from a lecturer to a full professor at quite an early age of 39 years old and the
latter having promoted to senior lecturer within five years of tenure. In the earlier section of this paper, it attempts to
answer the questions: What is academic excellence and what defines "success" in academic excellence? What is
required for promotion? The questions of where young and new academicians are heading to and how do they get there
are also highlighted by laying out a general career roadmap academic excellence plan and importantly, present
strategies to deal with the potential pitfalls and avoid some of the bumps in the road towards striving for academic
excellence. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T07:29:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-7375 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T07:29:33Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-73752015-10-09T01:03:08Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/ Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path Jusoff, Kamaruzaman Abu Samah, Siti Akmar A career in academics entails far beyond teaching. Being an academician is a very good job. The freedom to think creatively and learn is priceless. In addition, an academician working towards a PhD goes through intellectually stimulating experience to be shared. Having a PhD is a must to all academics since the PhD experience is about much more than learning to do deep work in some technical area of expertise and being constructively critical. The key is to figure out ways of moving between the different facets of the job without becoming too crazy. In another aspect, an academician is most likely to encounter his role model in teaching, research and professional service environments which are the platforms in pursuit towards excellence. In fact, these are the three main areas within which a faculty member must demonstrate excellence and achievement in order to be promoted: research, teaching and professional service. Indeed, there may be an array of promotion tracks to fit such different career paths; these tracks may have different requirements for promotion. It is critically important that the junior faculty member be familiar with the requirements of their particular track early in the course of their career. He should find out the relevant requirements and expectations for promotion and be thinking about these matters from an early point in his career, rather than near the end when the promotion clock is ticking. This paper also focuses on the significance of getting a PhD, sharing good lessons and experiences during doctorate training, and giving practical job strategy description and academic solutions for a career roadmap towards excellence. The paper is written from the perspective of the authors, the former who has survived the fast track promotion process from a lecturer to a full professor at quite an early age of 39 years old and the latter having promoted to senior lecturer within five years of tenure. In the earlier section of this paper, it attempts to answer the questions: What is academic excellence and what defines "success" in academic excellence? What is required for promotion? The questions of where young and new academicians are heading to and how do they get there are also highlighted by laying out a general career roadmap academic excellence plan and importantly, present strategies to deal with the potential pitfalls and avoid some of the bumps in the road towards striving for academic excellence. 2009 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/1/Developing%20Professional%20Track%20towards%20Excellence%20in%20Academician.pdf Jusoff, Kamaruzaman and Abu Samah, Siti Akmar (2009) Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path. Asian Culture and History, 1 (2). pp. 75-81. ISSN 1916-9655 http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ach/article/view/3057 English |
| spellingShingle | Jusoff, Kamaruzaman Abu Samah, Siti Akmar Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title | Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title_full | Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title_fullStr | Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title_full_unstemmed | Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title_short | Developing Professional Track towards Excellence in Academician’s Career Path |
| title_sort | developing professional track towards excellence in academician’s career path |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/7375/1/Developing%20Professional%20Track%20towards%20Excellence%20in%20Academician.pdf |