"The world is different now," explains Clews, an experienced arts manager and writer, who guides the young hopefuls through the process. "The olden days when you climbed the academic ladder and never went out of the academy are gone. There aren't many lectureships around any more, so you have to have a multi-stranded career."
Melbourne University, among other institutions, exhorts its brightest graduates to publish (or produce, or perform, or exhibit) or perish. "Knowledge transfer", the spreading of expertise far and wide, has become a cherished mantra of university chiefs.
Excerpt from: Academic Idyll by Julie Szego in TheAge.