Confronting the challenges of massification surge in Higher Education: Sustaining the academic workforce and its excellence in Australia.

The global demand for higher education is expected to increase significantly and Australia will also face a similar situation. The Australian higher education institutions should possess the capacity to cater for this rapid growth in demand. However there are a number of unique issues currently identified in the Australian context and they are: the ageing workforce and retirement of older academics; sustaining the early career academics in an environment already under pressure and training research students for replenishment of academic profession. This paper explores prospects to enhance the situation and alerts stakeholders to the necessity of action promptly, responding to broader social cultural, economic and political changes in Australia.