About academia

Academia is a collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole.

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The word comes from the akademeia just outside ancient Athens, where the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning. The sacred space, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, Athene, had formerly been an olive grove, hence the expression "the groves of Academe".

By extension Academia has come to connote the cultural accumulation of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations and its practitioners and transmitters. In the seventeenth century, English and French religious scholars popularized the term to describe certain types of institutions of higher learning. The English adopted the form academy while the French adopted the forms acadème and académie.

An academic is a person who works as a researcher (and usually teacher) at a university or similar institution in post-secondary (or tertiary) education. He or she is nearly always an advanced degree holder who does research. In the United States, the term academic is approximately synonymous with that of the job title professor although in recent decades a growing number of institutions are also including academic or professional librarians in the category of "academic staff." In the United Kingdom, various titles are used, typically fellow, lecturer, reader, and professor (see also academic rank), though the loose term don is often popularly substituted. The term scholar is sometimes used with equivalent meaning to that of "academic" and describes in general those who attain mastery in a research discipline. It has wider application, with it also being used to describe those whose occupation was research prior to mass organized higher education.

Academic administrators are not typically included in this use of the term academic.

Some sociologists have divided, but not limited, academia into four basic historical types: ancient academia, early academia, academic societies, and the modern university. There are at least two models of academia: a European model developed since ancient times, as well as an American model developed by Benjamin Franklin in the mid-eighteenth century and Thomas Jefferson in the early nineteenth century. In the United States academia tends to be politically progressive with 72 percent of faculty members identifying as liberal (87 percent at elite institutions)."

Quotes about academia

1. “ As chairman of the MIT Corporation, Alex properly and productively challenged the ways in which academia functions. His rethinking of MIT's budgeting processes was invaluable. ”

   In Alex d'Arbeloff dies at 80

1. Mentioned In 5 Articles

2. [aaas Affairs] Presidential Address: Challenges and Prospects of Advancing Science and Technology in Africa: The Case of Rwanda

   Science/AAAS (Oct 23 2008) Proposals , Technologies Explore Article

   ...lead to even greater prosperity through a triangular relationship between government, business, and academia. This multifaceted relationship is evident in the entire value chain of education from elementary s... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Paul Kagame   academia   Africa

3. Shultz urges cut in US oil dependence at MIT event

   media-newswire.com (Oct 20 2008) Heat , Steam , Proposals , Technologies Explore Article

   ...ht at MIT and Stanford, has witnessed the issues surrounding energy policy from the perspectives of academia, industry and government. And he says that now, after several failed attempts to reduce our oil dep... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Congress   Stanford   George P.

4. Shultz urges cut in U.S. oil dependence

   web.mit.edu (Oct 17 2008) Heat , Steam , Proposals , Technologies Explore Article

   ...ht at MIT and Stanford, has witnessed the issues surrounding energy policy from the perspectives of academia, industry and government. And he says that now, after several failed attempts to reduce our oil dep... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Congress   Stanford   George P.

5. Gift to endow the Broad Institute

   web.mit.edu (Sep 4 2008) Explore Article

   ...f the Broad Institute by Eli and Edythe Broad -- and the collaboration and support of the industry, academia, business and government through the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative -- we are on our way to... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   academia   Harvard University   Susan Hockfield

6. Robert C. Seamans Jr., 89

   web.mit.edu (Jun 30 2008) Explore Article

   ...eteor and as a director of the Flight Control Lab. The one period of Seamans' life spent away from academia or the government--from 1955-1960--landed him at RCA, where he was chief engineer of the company's ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   academia   S. Air Force   Energy Department

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