The term "headhunter" connotes professions most people consider business or very close to business, such as attorneys, construction management, or engineers. By contrast, academe connotes a tree-lined grove half that belongs to a world of pure contemplation unsullied by concerns about mere money. Needless to say, academe is not nearly so pure, and one consequence of this is the need for higher education executive search firms.
The rhetoric of liberal arts has the largest role in our often unrealistic thinking about academe. This rhetoric, which one still hears so often in freshman orientation speeches, gives one the impression of a world apart. Young people learn the liberal arts in a disinterested way, free from any merely commercial concern, as if everyone there was a budding Romantic poet.
In reality, higher academia is a very big industry, whose endowments can reach as large as a billion dollars. Public universities represent a very noticeable slice of every state budget. For the students, interest in getting their degrees is inevitably about their career. This is the case even for those in the arts, which is why the Master of Fine Arts is so important to them.
A student's costs are so astronomical that schools cannot help but think of them as their consumers, even without admitting it to themselves. This pure image needs to be recognized as, above all, an industry's advertising campaign. Youths today are much more aware than their predecessors that these years will manifest themselves not just as a degree but as many years of debt, and only a few can take that on just to be able to quote Wordsworth.
Students aren't the only customers who need to be stroked and cultivated. Schools must try to win grants and contracts from government and industry, and certainly from the military, which requires the brainpower that resides in their science and engineering oriented departments. They also need to compete for rich benefactors, and for the foundations they manage, especially in the arts and humanities. There is no better way to compete for this funding than by bringing aboard academe's top performing stars, those whose reputations open donors' checkbooks.
One must remember that college includes the potentially astronomically lucrative world of college sports, an area that frequently forms the core of the institution's identity. Superstar coaches and top facilities do not come cheap. The rewards are a brand name that binds students not just while on campus but afterward, when they are well-paid alumni.
Search firms come in two flavors, contingency and retainer. The former works to fill one position as it appears, and will frequently belabor personnel officers with phone calls "selling" some potential candidate without foreknowledge of any need whatsoever. These agencies can be fine for smaller schools, those who don't hire superstar academic talent very often.
Retainer firms are usually best for large universities which expect to do a lot of hiring, or for elite smaller colleges for whom all hiring must be top-notch. These firms build a long range client relationship with the institution, becoming sensitive to its particular needs, and make life a lot easier for the school's overworked human resources department.
The rhetoric of liberal arts has the largest role in our often unrealistic thinking about academe. This rhetoric, which one still hears so often in freshman orientation speeches, gives one the impression of a world apart. Young people learn the liberal arts in a disinterested way, free from any merely commercial concern, as if everyone there was a budding Romantic poet.
In reality, higher academia is a very big industry, whose endowments can reach as large as a billion dollars. Public universities represent a very noticeable slice of every state budget. For the students, interest in getting their degrees is inevitably about their career. This is the case even for those in the arts, which is why the Master of Fine Arts is so important to them.
A student's costs are so astronomical that schools cannot help but think of them as their consumers, even without admitting it to themselves. This pure image needs to be recognized as, above all, an industry's advertising campaign. Youths today are much more aware than their predecessors that these years will manifest themselves not just as a degree but as many years of debt, and only a few can take that on just to be able to quote Wordsworth.
Students aren't the only customers who need to be stroked and cultivated. Schools must try to win grants and contracts from government and industry, and certainly from the military, which requires the brainpower that resides in their science and engineering oriented departments. They also need to compete for rich benefactors, and for the foundations they manage, especially in the arts and humanities. There is no better way to compete for this funding than by bringing aboard academe's top performing stars, those whose reputations open donors' checkbooks.
One must remember that college includes the potentially astronomically lucrative world of college sports, an area that frequently forms the core of the institution's identity. Superstar coaches and top facilities do not come cheap. The rewards are a brand name that binds students not just while on campus but afterward, when they are well-paid alumni.
Search firms come in two flavors, contingency and retainer. The former works to fill one position as it appears, and will frequently belabor personnel officers with phone calls "selling" some potential candidate without foreknowledge of any need whatsoever. These agencies can be fine for smaller schools, those who don't hire superstar academic talent very often.
Retainer firms are usually best for large universities which expect to do a lot of hiring, or for elite smaller colleges for whom all hiring must be top-notch. These firms build a long range client relationship with the institution, becoming sensitive to its particular needs, and make life a lot easier for the school's overworked human resources department.
About the Author:
You can now get all the essential information about higher education executive search firms instantly via the Web! If you have any questions or need advice, check out our recommended homepage at http://www.ed-exec.com right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment