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.
The university, meanwhile, is a big business whether it admits it or not, and public colleges and universities represent a formidable chunk of public treasure. The student interest in going to school is highly focused on getting a degree, and that interest is nearly completely careerist. Even artists hunger for the Master of Fine arts degree from a brand name program, and ultimately they want it to make a good living.
Students' expenses are so extreme that students are best seen as as a schools' customers, however vulgar it would be to admit this openly. There is a hallowed image of purity, but at the end of the day, administrators must take a cold eye to it and see it as what it is, an industry marketing strategy. The student body is increasingly aware of, and nervous about, the mountain of debt it is incurring each credit-hour, and the student attending for pure refinement of sensibility is fast becoming an anachronism.
There are kinds of customers other than students. Institutions must compete for grants, both from business and government, with special attention to the relation between the science and engineering departments and the military, where truly huge contracts are available. They must also compete for funding from wealthy benefactors and their foundations, especially when it comes to the humanities departments. The best way to attract this money is by hiring academic superstars, those rare individuals whose names and backgrounds will impress donors.
It's easy to forget that college also means collegiate sports, which often becomes all important to the school's self-image. Top coaches in top sports, with the most cutting-edge facilities, are understandably expensive. The payoff is branding that inspires students not simply during their college years but after they graduate, when they can approached for donations to their beloved alma mater.
Contingency firms work primarily on one job opening at a time, with as many as a dozen each day calling beleaguered personnel officers on a particular prospect, and several will end up calling This could be the favored option for smaller colleges who don't have the need to hire superstar academics very frequently.
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.
The university, meanwhile, is a big business whether it admits it or not, and public colleges and universities represent a formidable chunk of public treasure. The student interest in going to school is highly focused on getting a degree, and that interest is nearly completely careerist. Even artists hunger for the Master of Fine arts degree from a brand name program, and ultimately they want it to make a good living.
Students' expenses are so extreme that students are best seen as as a schools' customers, however vulgar it would be to admit this openly. There is a hallowed image of purity, but at the end of the day, administrators must take a cold eye to it and see it as what it is, an industry marketing strategy. The student body is increasingly aware of, and nervous about, the mountain of debt it is incurring each credit-hour, and the student attending for pure refinement of sensibility is fast becoming an anachronism.
There are kinds of customers other than students. Institutions must compete for grants, both from business and government, with special attention to the relation between the science and engineering departments and the military, where truly huge contracts are available. They must also compete for funding from wealthy benefactors and their foundations, especially when it comes to the humanities departments. The best way to attract this money is by hiring academic superstars, those rare individuals whose names and backgrounds will impress donors.
It's easy to forget that college also means collegiate sports, which often becomes all important to the school's self-image. Top coaches in top sports, with the most cutting-edge facilities, are understandably expensive. The payoff is branding that inspires students not simply during their college years but after they graduate, when they can approached for donations to their beloved alma mater.
Contingency firms work primarily on one job opening at a time, with as many as a dozen each day calling beleaguered personnel officers on a particular prospect, and several will end up calling This could be the favored option for smaller colleges who don't have the need to hire superstar academics very frequently.
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.
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