Lost in the ‘third space’: the impact of public engagement in higher education on academic identity, research practice and career progression

Abstract

Public engagement (PE) is habitually recognized and advocated across the higher education (HE) community – especially by regulator and funder constituencies – as an intrinsically good thing. In the UK, a number of initiatives focused on embedding a culture of PE within universities have sought to further this claim, yet have done so without considering or reporting upon some of the less positive elements of its undertaking. In this paper, we report upon evidence from interviews with n = 40 UK academics, drawn from across the academic hierarchy, disciplines and a diverse range of higher education institutions. The testimony of respondents points towards a number of issues for public engagement in higher education (PE-HE), specifically the deleterious effects of its undertaking on academic identity; research practice and career progression.

Keywords:

• public engagement
• academic identity
• research practice
• career progression
• impact

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Richard Watermeyer is an Associate Professor in Education Studies at the University of Warwick. He is a sociologist of education with broad interests in higher education policy, governance and regulation; academic identity and practice; and the current and future role of the university. His work is particularly focused on the response of academics to the neoliberalization of higher education and the defence of the ‘public university’. He has led evaluations of major UK and European public engagement in science and technology initiatives and was the first social scientist to be seconded to the Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales.

Notes

1. The NCCPE is funded by the four UK Funding Councils, Research Councils UK and the Wellcome Trust and is established to help inspire and support universities to engage with the public.

2. Higher Education Role Analysis (HERA) is the UK’s (re)evaluation framework for academic posts.