Theories of what determines research performance have evolved from political and economic science, amongst other disciplines. Contemporary research shows that universities have a problematic work environment characterized by bullying, insecure jobs, and dysfunctional leadership. In this study, we explore the relationship between the psycho-social…

Increasingly, faculty with intersectional perspectives are challenging many aspects of higher education and urging a radical reimagination of the institution itself. This volume explores the successful strategies and contradictions of working within, against, and beyond a university with the goal of creating a humanizing educational experience for…

Within the vertically differentiated German university system, the Humboldtian ideal of the unity of research and teaching can no longer be taken for granted. We argue that the organizational academic profession actively pursues the erosion of the unity of research and teaching in their social partnership with the state, trading autonomy for proof…

Research has shown that a tenure track incorporates both commitment and control aspects: the career system offers junior-level academics long-term job prospects, but subjects them to performance control. This study complements existing research on tenure track positions, which has mostly been conducted in northern America. Universities in Finland…

While it has been stressed repeatedly that academics nowadays have come to face extensive pressure, the extent and distribution of pressure to publish and to secure third-party funding has not been systematically investigated on a large scale. Based on the Zurich Survey of Academics, a representative large-scale web survey among academics working…

This article presents some data from the literature and opinions from responses to interviews with 74 Brazilian and 15 European researchers. They were questioned about their work and the consequences to their lives caused by the changes imposed by the Coordinating Agency for Improvement in Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in Brazil and the…

This article is part of an international research project which is investigating the changing nature of the academic profession in twenty-two countries in the twenty-first century. This article focuses on the discourses of global competition; the permeation of a business ethos and higher education values; the quest for efficiency; diversification…