The construction of academic identity in the changes of Finnish higher education

Abstract

This article sets out to explore how academics make sense of the current transformations of higher education and what kinds of academic identities are thereby constructed. Based on a narrative analysis of 42 interviews with Finnish academics, nine narratives are discerned, each providing a different answer as to what it means to be an academic in the present-day university. Narratives of resistance, loss, administrative work overload and job insecurity are embedded in a regressive storyline, describing deterioration of academic work and one's standing. In a sharp contrast, narratives of success, mobility and change agency rely on a progressive storyline which sees the current changes in a positive light. Between these opposites, narratives of work-life balance and bystander follow stable storylines, involving a neutral stance toward university transformations. The paper concludes that academic identities have become increasingly diversified and polarized due to the managerial and structural changes in higher education.

Accessing the Research Community: Metaphors in Understanding the Processes of Becoming a Researcher

“…However, currently the traditional activities have been augmented by applying for funding, the productization of research, boosting one's visibility, and the rapid production and report of results in easily digestible form. Such diversification of the academic practice, and accordingly, the diversification of experiencing and practicing academic identities has been suggested in several studies (e.g., Henkel, 2005;Smith, 2012, Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013. For example, we are not only becoming researchers, but also (forced to become) academic entrepreneurs demanded to prove our productivity, effectivity, and existence in the knowledge economy.…”

Typical and Individual Doctoral Processes and Lifecourses: The Types of Narratives of the Project Manager, the Survivor and the Seeker

“…The experienced enthusiasm and commitment as well as the balance between the resources and challenges are central in organization and in progressing in the doctoral studies (Pyhältö, Vekkaila, & Keskinen, 2012). At the same time it is to be noted that the future of an academically highly educated individual appears as open, uncertain and full of new challenges (Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013;Bitusikova, 2009). The doctoral degree does not guarantee automatic success but the competition, for example, for the work which corresponds to the education increases (Ylijoki, 2010;Rhoades, 2012).…”

“…The tightening pace and the increasing demands are reflected in the individuals: they fulfill external expectations and reach for their own independent objectives. Competition, success and lifelong learning are part of the global development and they are manifested in the academic everyday life, also in that of a doctoral student (Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013).…”

Transforming finnish higher education: institutional mergers and conflicting academic identities

“…All of these reforms have promoted the implementation of neo-liberal and managerialist ideologies and practices into Finnish higher education (Rinne & Jauhiainen 2012). There is some empirical evidence that as a consequence of these cumulative changes, Finnish academics are becoming polarised into different categories, consisting of those who benefit from the changes and those who do not, (Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013, 2015.…”

“…Indeed, various slogans of neo-liberal ideologies for high quality, attractiveness and competitiveness are commonly wielded in policy discourses to promote the mergers. These macro-level changes in the policy, funding and governance of higher education have also impact on the micro-level of daily activities in academia, moulding how academics make sense of their work and their roles (Ylijoki & Ursin, 2013).…”