“Where do we go?” – the dilemmas, challenges and hopes for future career development at the university

Globalization and commercialization of higher education systems and social acceleration causes the changes in an academic career. Some policymakers and scholars perceive the neoliberal transformation and commercialization of higher education as a necessity and advantage, while the others, especially from the humanities and social sciences, recognize them as disruptions of a traditional university system. I would like to make an attempt to reconstruct the discussion of the Western scholars on neoliberal changes in academia. Moreover, I will point out the main dilemmas and controversies which occurred in the professional practice of scholars that include: the balance and disproportions between teaching and research; ‘publish or perish’ syndrome, specialization and fragmentation of knowledge and science; maintaining quality and dealing with bureaucracy in higher education system.