During the last two decades the higher education system in the UK has moved from an élite to a mass orientation, while academic careers have become less secure and more demanding, and a greater accountability has been imposed upon the system. In the light of these changes, it is appropriate to ask what is known about the nature of academic work. For the purposes of this article, academic work has been conceptualised as involving one or more of five overlapping roles: the commonplace triumvirate of teaching, research and managing, plus writing and networking. The existing literature on each of these roles, and on academic careers in general is reviewed. At the time of writing, there was no single comprehensive text available on academic work in the UK. While much has been written in recent years on the teaching role (and, to a lesser extent, on managing) relatively little of a cross-disciplinary nature appears to have been written on academic researching, writing or networking. The future development of these, and other, areas of writing on academic careers, is considered.
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