Current research on the twin topics of globalization and higher education has emphasized the degree to which globalization has meant the diffusion of Western standards and ways of organizing institutions of higher education. Whether due to neoliberalism, global ranking systems, American hegemony, or the functional exigencies of economic globalization, global systems of higher education, increasingly, display a high degree of structural isomorphism. By contrast, less scholarly attention has been directed towards the instructors and professors who constitute this global intellectual workforce. As such, the following paper examines how the globalization of higher education has influenced what it means to be a university professor. The questions that this paper seeks to address include the following: what adaptations have occurred in the profession? To what degree are the globalizing forces that promote academic homogeneity affect academic freedom? And, more specifically, when Western organizational forms are exported, how does the specific professional role of the professoriate change? This paper is particularly concerned with tenure and the protections associated with academic freedom. The geographic focus of this paper will be on American-style and other Western universities of higher education in the Middle East and North Africa.
