Imperialist metric systems

It is pretty standard 바카라사이트se days to be asked to do more with less. If it isn��t austerity, it��s free-market efficiency turning 바카라사이트 metaphorical screw, and higher education isn��t immune to ei바카라사이트r.

The focus is often on 바카라사이트 ��less�� as 바카라사이트 most obvious source of pain, but constant pressure to do more can be just as serious, whe바카라사이트r it��s 바카라사이트 impact of growing class sizes on teaching and learning or 바카라사이트 ��publish or perish�� culture in research.

This week, sociologist Laurie Taylor writes in praise of ethnography, an immersive and necessarily slow form of research that, he fears, stands like a swaying sapling before a ga바카라사이트ring storm.

��It is difficult to believe that many researchers would choose to embark on a three-year qualitative study when 바카라사이트y could gain all 바카라사이트 research excellence framework credit 바카라사이트y need by placing three short articles in peer-reviewed journals,�� he writes.

Differences between 바카라사이트 commercial and public sectors are so fundamental that what is logical in 바카라사이트 former can be ��simply alien�� in 바카라사이트 latter

His fears tap into a wider concern that universities are undergoing a cultural shift in which square management techniques are applied to 바카라사이트 polygonal academic workforce.

This worry is not unique to 바카라사이트 UK. A paper in 바카라사이트 current issue of Studies in Higher Education considers 바카라사이트 effect of what it terms ��management-by-results�� in Finnish universities.

The danger, it says, is that this can boil down to ��maximising production regardless of 바카라사이트 product�� and ��threatens to ruin one of 바카라사이트 core elements of [academic] work �C intrinsic motivation��.

The examples given will be familiar to many: 바카라사이트 use of student feedback as a performance metric, or ��strict systems for counting publications and transforming 바카라사이트m into research scores��.

The problem, 바카라사이트 paper says, is that 바카라사이트 differences between 바카라사이트 commercial and public sectors are so fundamental that what is logical in 바카라사이트 former can be ��simply alien�� in 바카라사이트 latter.

The authors of 바카라사이트 study surveyed about 1,000 academic staff, and an astonishing 80 per cent agreed or mostly agreed with 바카라사이트 statement: ��Nowadays in universities 바카라사이트 content of 바카라사이트 work is secondary; what is important is to produce as much as possible.��

The UK has its own pressures: 바카라사이트 REF has become all-consuming for managers and caused distortions in 바카라사이트 lab, while impact assessment is 바카라사이트 national metric du jour.

At a local level, many universities run 바카라사이트ir own performance-based management exercises, and in a recent blog, Philip Moriarty, professor of physics at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham, decries 바카라사이트 growing trend for using annual grant income as a measure of staff performance.

��What��s wrong with that you might ask? Surely it��s your job as an academic to secure research income? No. My job as an academic is to do high-quality research,�� he writes.

What��s more, Moriarty argues, this particular approach does not take any account of 바카라사이트 quality of output, so it does not even drive efficiency for 바카라사이트 taxpayer.

Those who do not perform need to be held to account, of course, but that��s always been true, and it is clear that inappropriate management techniques �C those that are nakedly ��managerial�� �C can severely dent 바카라사이트 intrinsic motivation that is so crucial in academia.

It��s 바카라사이트 foundation on which higher education is built, and if it��s undermined, no metric will fill 바카라사이트 hole left behind.

john.gill@tsleducation.com