The higher education discipline faces challenges as it struggles to balance academic advancement with practical relevance. This disparity in knowledge can be attributed to the “diversity of knowledge,” with some focusing on theoretical concepts and others prioritizing practical applications. This study explores this diversity of knowledge and its impact on the higher education field, examining the difference between “academic orientation” and “practical orientation” and examines their influence on the discipline. First, we established a knowledge formation model by examining the mechanisms that maintain the academic and practical orientations. Second, based on the model, we analyzed the distribution of knowledge and professional work related to higher education, The findings indicate the need for a balance between academic and practical orientations in higher education research and a link between professional work and research. Finally, we explored the relationship between research training and professional education in the United States, highlighting the importance of their interdependence. The study concludes by discussing the potential for enhancing the training of personnel in the higher education field.

　 This study investigates how higher education (HE) professionals should be trained in Japanese postgraduate schools in the field of HE. However, this question is not easy to answer as there are two major barriers. First, it is unclear who HE professionals are and second, what HE research is. Therefore, this study examines the question of how HE professionals should be trained, leaving these ambiguities unresolved. However, this is also what makes the question of this study interesting. The trainers of HE professionals who are the subject of the research are working on training in what they consider to be the best way, through a process of trial and error, while accepting the above two unclear points in their own way.

　 This study conducts an interview survey of 12 trainers of HE professionals to determine what they think about training. Based on the results, this study argues that (1) many students who aim to become HE professionals enter graduate school without sufficient knowledge not only of HE but also of pedagogy in general. (2) On the other hand, the curricula of the graduate schools that accept them are not well organised. (3) Nevertheless, given that HE professionals tend to be required to have not only research (teaching) skills but also practical skills, it is noticeable in the ingenious ways in which students can perform ‘practice as if they were doing research’.

　 The “New Types of Specialists” discussed in this paper are those who are engaged in specific duties universities without being transferred. The results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2017-2018 for “New Types of Specialists” revealed that they are more likely to obtain training opportunities outside the university if they are “relatively young in age,” “intend to continue working at their current employer,” and “have a supervisor in a leadership role.” There are two issues to be addressed in the training of those specialists. First, it is difficult to find career prospects because they are often employed for a fixed term. Second, the knowledge and skills required to perform their duties are often considered to have been acquired through “self-study,” and they may not have received appropriate training opportunities. A possible future vision is for centers for higher education at each university to provide education and training on a campus-wide basis.

　 It can be thought that higher education textbook has been used for their professional development by staff in University and College. However, the situations in the higher education textbooks have been never clarified. Therefore, this paper considers the authors of textbooks and the content in their textbooks for staff in University and College, after that it clarifies the process of knowledge production.

　 We analyzed recently published textbooks, compared them with previous textbooks and the corresponding U.S. textbooks, and extracted problems with the textbooks. The analysis showed that it was possible for the members of academic society to write textbooks alone and there is room for collaboration and cooperation with knowledge developed outside of academic society. In addition, it was shown that descriptions of professional education and the legal environment were weak, although various aspects were described.

　 In the future, a system should be put into place to actively accept the outside member of academic societies and it is expected to accept knowledge from outside the academic societies.

　 The author has worked at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for 37 years and at three national universities for 10 years and 5 months, and has been working at one private university since April 2021. The author has worked close to higher education research as a policy maker and university executive, and has compiled what he has thought about, valued and can suggest regarding higher education research and professional development from this perspective. The most important thing is to determine the basic principles that form the core of higher education research. This is the basic philosophy that enables the formation of a unique discipline that can govern various research fields and methods based on that basic philosophy. The author considers this to be the autonomy of universities, respect for the independence of researchers and equal opportunities in education. Today, when universities are about to cease to be universities, it is necessary to reconfirm what higher education research is all about in order to preserve the university as an outstanding system of intellectual activity for mankind.

　 Higher education in Malaysia is undergoing significant growth as well as challenges, but limited yet in terms of talents related to higher education such competent policy makers, research community, higher education professionals, and institutional leaders. This chapter provides a general picture of the current state of researchers, scholar practitioners and leaders on higher education in Malaysia, and the importance of talent development for experts in higher education. It further presents an examination of the various training and development programmes i.e., the types of degrees and professional development programmes offered at the higher education institution level designed to help prepare the needed talents. It also highlights the role and work of the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) in the training and development of aspiring higher education leaders. Pertinent challenges and prospects in the development of talents such as lack of a critical mass of higher education scholars, lack of graduate programmes, lack of internal leadership development by higher education institutions, and fragmented leadership preparation for higher education leaders are synthesised and highlighted. The discussion served as background to the consideration of future perspectives that need to be addressed in developing talents - i.e., researchers, scholar practitioners and leaders specific to the context of HE, and the long-term knowledge generation and application capacities that are needed to manage the higher education system.

　 The purpose of this study is to examine “how the university staff members start improvement work”. To achieve this purpose, the author carried out the semi-structured interview with mid-level university staff members and extracted concepts in the execution process of the improvement work, and considered the relation between them. The main findings are as follows.

　 Firstly, the factors pointed out in the previous works promote different stages in the execution process of improvement work, and that “meaning” as factors are different. Secondly, concepts which are important for the training of university staff members such as “learning about internal structures” and “customer orientation” are also important for the execution of work. In addition, it was pointed out that these relationships might come from the characteristic of the university staff’s work, namely, the collaboration with various stakeholders.

　 This paper addresses a research question on the state of the teaching profession. In the framework of policy and previous research on “both education and research”, practitioner teachers and others often fall outside the scope of understanding. For this reason, the concept of “professional practice” is introduced. For this purpose, we focused on non-university higher education, which combines the two elements of academic and vocational education, and re-analysed national teacher survey data for junior colleges and professional training colleges.

　 First, an exploratory factor analysis of the structure of teachers’ perceptions of their competence in education was conducted, adding not only the two elements of “teaching” and “research” but also the third element of “professional practice”, and a three-factor structure with a certain commonality was confirmed. However, a closer look reveals variation of factor structures, that differences were observed according to the characteristics of the school type.

　 Next, we conducted the analysis of structural equation modelling on causal relationship between the academic and vocational experiences and the perception of ability to provide education of teachers. As a result, a statistically fit model was extracted. The relationship between academic experience with the ability to teach is statistically significant. To the same extent, it is clear that professional work experience also influences the perception of teaching competence.

　 Thirdly, post-employment experience strongly determines the perception of competence. However, the most decisive factor was duration of service after employment, followed by the effect of post-employment professional achievements, and the active publication of these achievements. It was also found that active presentation and compilation of results, rather than passive participation in research activities, were key to skills development.