Exploring Expertise Criteria of University Academics

Abstract

Given the absence of expertise criteria of academics or lecturers, we sought to explore relevant studies to formulate an informed framework of academic expertise. Academics at higher education institutions are often considered experts. Usually, academic roles comprise teaching, research, and community service. Therefore, academics’ expertise should be assessed based on these roles. However, no specific criteria are currently available to address this issue. At the moment, various attempts have been directed to measure academic competence. However, it should be understood that competence and expertise require different levels of mastery of knowledge and skill acquisition. Because many scholars have argued that competence is insufficient to handle present and future challenges, developing an assessment tool for academic expertise is imperative.  We aim to develop standards for identifying and determining academic expertise as a novel attempt to develop that tool. To do so, we examined the well-defined expertise theory of General Expertise Measurement (GEM) and refined it specifically for academics. A systematic review of the existing literature was conducted to identify the criteria aligning with the academic expertise.  These criteria were then validated by experts to determine their significance and relevance in assessing the academic expertise. The findings revealed that several criteria emerged as highly significant and relevant for assessing academic expertise. These criteria include knowledge, experience, problem-solving abilities, skill analysis, collaboration, communication, engagement with the community, educational background, continuous improvement, intuition, recognition, research aptitude, training, understanding of the context, and self-confidence.