Some problems in the analysis of academic expertise

Abstract

The growing interest in the analysis of academic expertise in higher education in the United Kingdom is noted. Some key terms are defined. Interest is largely explained by central government concern to increase productivity. Equal pay legislation and a desire to professionalise aspects of academic work may also play a part. All analyses contain contestable beliefs and values. Analysis is likely to conceal as much as it reveals. The analysis of academic expertise is inevitably problematic, because of diversity in the sector, difficulties in describing academic activity definitively and ambivalence in the sector about the status of some academic roles. Functional analysis, now the dominant form, has undoubted strengths, but does not capture some of the complexity of cademic expertise, and is therefore of limited value in this field.