Public university research engagement contradictions in a commercialising higher education world

Abstract

This paper aims to critically assess the impact of public university commercialisation on research engagement and practice relevance. Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in university environments, identities and missions, as well as in government and private sector funding and involvement. As increasingly commercialised and corporatised organisations, universities have increasingly mimicked private sector hierarchical organisation structures, professionally managed and subject to performance management via proliferating management control systems. From accumulated prior research, this paper finds university research now primarily conducted for the private rather than public good, researchers being subject to and tailoring their endeavors to conform with proliferating metrics focused university management control systems. External engagement appears as a university impression management strategy, while internally, researchers are still compelled to pursue a contradictory focus on high-status self-referential journal publication venues. This contradictory environment is found to have produced an increasing distance betweenThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

University research by the numbers: Epistemic methods of using digitized performance measures and their implications for research practices

“…Next, we explored the problem empirically by presenting the findings of how epistemic methods unfold at two different types of academic departments in two different national settings. Relating the global phenomenon of measures of research quality in two different national settings gives nuances of the conceptual framework and also enables more distinct conclusions (Parker, 2022).…”

“…Intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness, new public management (NPM) reforms have infiltrated higher education systems worldwide, transforming universities into enterprises and scholars into entrepreneurs and performers (Gendron, 2008; Parker, 2011). In this context, universities have extensively implemented performance management systems dominated by quantitative and procedural forms of assessment (e.g., Craig et al., 2014; Kallio et al., 2017; Northcott & Linacre, 2010; Parker, 2022; Pianezzi et al., 2020). Accounting research reveals that in respond to this, universities and academics have become increasingly oriented to achieving measurable results (Chua, 2019; Gerdin & Englund, 2019; Espeland & Sauder, 2016), with consequent dysfunctional effects that range from the growing simplicity and standardization of higher education activities to the lack of innovation and stagnation of scientific production, as well as the redefinition of academic values and roles (e.g., Gebreiter, 2021; Gerdin & Englund, 2019; Humphrey & Gendron, 2015; Tandilashvili & Tandilashvili, 2022; ter Bogt & Scapens, 2012; Vakkuri & Johanson, 2020).…”

Universities in a contested space: The dominance of calculative accounting practices and the development of a research agenda

“…While largely intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness, the researchers argue that managerial reforms based on NPM ideas have infiltrated higher education systems worldwide and contributed to transforming universities into enterprises, and scholars into entrepreneurs (Gendron, 2008; Parker, 2011). In this context, universities have extensively implemented performance management systems dominated by quantitative and procedural forms of assessment (Craig et al., 2014; Parker, 2024). The traditional ideal of university as a democratic, autonomous, collegial, and innovative space has been replaced by an ideal that values centralization, hierarchical accountability, and efficiency (Kallio et al., 2020; Schmidt & Langberg, 2007).…”

“…In this Special Issue, and connecting old discussions to new evidence, Parker (2024) critically assessed the impact of public‐university commercialization on research engagement and practice. In his research, 40 empirical papers related to accounting and management studies in the university sector published between 2012 and 2022 are interrogated and analyzed.…”

“…The Special Issue develops along two main themes: the increasing managerialism involved in the functioning and management of universities, and the emerging propensity to demonstrate and measure the “Public Value” of universities. Introducing the original contributions by Parker (2024), Al Mahameed et al. (2024), and Mauro et al.…”