Efficacy and limitations of research steering in different disciplines

Abstract

Higher education reforms informed by the managerial paradigm aim at increasing the capability of the university leadership to steer research activity, with no substantial variation across the disciplines. However, literature points out the limitations of universities to act as strategic actors, as well as the differences between the disciplines that may influence the efficacy of steering. Evidence from the Dutch and Italian systems shows that reforms improve the steering potential. Overall, steering is more effective in new sciences, while other disciplines remain hardly steerable; thus, the discipline mix appears to influence steering strategy and practice.

Keywords:

• research steering
• disciplines
• funding
• evaluation

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Emanuela Reale and Benedetto Lepori for their comments and criticism to earlier version of this article, and to Matteo Turri and two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions. I also thank the Prime Network of Excellence for its support to my project.