Academic identities and higher education change: reviewing the evidence

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flowchart summarising findings from search strategy.

Flowchart based on PRISMA statement (Page et al. 2021)

Table A1. Studies included in the review.

Author and date	Title
Aitken and O’Carroll (2020)	Academic Identity and Crossing Boundaries: The Role of the Programme Director in Postgraduate Taught Programmes
Alkhateeb et al. (2020)	The Reconstruction of Academic Identity through Language Policy: A Narrative Approach
Badiozaman (2021)	Early Career Academics’ Identity Development in a Changing HE Landscape: Insights from a Malaysian Private University
Chipindi and Vavrus (2018)	The Ontology of Mention: Contexts, Contests, and Constructs of Academic Identity among University of Zambia Faculty
Chubb and Watermeyer (2017)	Artifice or Integrity in the Marketization of Research Impact? Investigating the Moral Economy of (Pathways to) Impact Statements within Research Funding Proposals in the UK and Australia
Chubb, Watermeyer, and Wakeling (2017)	Fear and Loathing in the Academy? The Role of Emotion in Response to an Impact Agenda in the UK and Australia
Degn (2018)	Academic Sensemaking and Behavioural Responses: Exploring How Academics Perceive and Respond to Identity Threats in Times of Turmoil
Dugas et al. (2020)	‘I’m Being Pulled in Too Many Different Directions’: Academic Identity Tensions at Regional Public Universities in Challenging Economic Times
Dugas et al. (2018)	Shrinking Budgets, Growing Demands: Neoliberalism and Academic Identity Tension at Regional Public Universities
Edwards (2022)	Why Do Academics Do Unfunded Research? Resistance, Compliance and Identity in the UK Neo-Liberal University
Fardella Cisternas et al. (2021)	Exacerbated: Academic Identities and the Transformation of Chilean Higher Education
Fardella et al. (2015)	Nosotros los Académicos: Narrativas Identitarias y Autodefinición en la Universidad Actual [We the Academics: Identity Narratives and Self-definition in the Current University]
Gaus and Hall (2015)	Neoliberal Governance in Indonesian Universities: The Impact Upon Academic Identity
Gumbi and McKenna (2020)	Reimagining Academic Identities in Response to Research Demands at Universities of Technology
Guzmán-Valenzuela and Larraín (2016)	Tensions in the Construction of Academic Identities in a Chilean University
Guzmán-Valenzuela and Barnett (2013)	Academic Fragilities in a Marketised Age: The Case of Chile
Hladchenko (2020)	Academic Identities in Ukrainian Research Universities under Conditions of Means-Ends Decoupling at the State Level
Hladchenko and Westerheijden (2018)	Means-Ends Decoupling and Academic Identities in Ukrainian University after the Revolution of Dignity
Yating et al. (2018)	Academic Identities and University Faculty Responses to New Managerialist Reforms: Experiences from China
Jiménez Peralta (2019)	Identidad Académica: Una Franquicia en Construcción
Jones, Gardner, and Bui (2022)	Vietnamese Early Career Academics’ Identity Work: Balancing Tensions Between East and West
Lee, Jung, and Shin (2020)	Changes in Academics’ Identity, Job Satisfaction, and Job Stress Between 1992 and 2018 in South Korea
Lust, Huber, and Junne (2019)	Academic Identity as a Discursive Resource for Resistance: The Case of quality management in German Higher Education Institutions
Martimianakis and Muzzin (2015)	Discourses of Interdisciplinarity and the Shifting Topography of Academic Work: Generational Perspectives on Facilitating and Resisting Neoliberalism
McCune (2021)	Academic Identities in Contemporary Higher Education: Sustaining Identities That Value Teaching
Nordbäck, Hakonen, and Tienari (2021)	Academic Identities and Sense of Place: A Collaborative Autoethnography in the Neoliberal University
Pflüger and Mojescik (2021)	Governance of Academic Teaching: Why Universities Introduce Funding Programs for Teaching and Why Academic Teachers Participate
Poutanen (2022)	I Am Done with That Now’. Sense of Alienations in Finnish Academia
Saqipi and Rexhaj (2020)	Moving from Survival to Development: Experiences in Kosovo from Developing Academic Identity in a Transitional Context
Selkrig, Manathunga, and Keamy (2021)	Research Is … Making the Emotional Dimensions of Academics’ Research Visible
Shams (2019)	Managing Academic Identity Tensions in a Canadian Public University: The Role of Identity Work in Coping with Managerialism
Shaw, Chapman, and Rumyantseva (2013)	Organizational Culture in the Adoption of the Bologna Process: A Study of Academic Staff at a Ukrainian University
Smith (2017)	Target-Setting, Early-Career Academic Identities and the Measurement Culture of UK Higher Education
Smith (2012)	Fools, Facilitators and Flexians: Academic Identities in Marketised Environments
Tandilashvili and Tandilashvili (2022)	Academics’ Perception of Identity (Re)construction: A Value Conflict Created by Performance Orientation
Tran, Burns, and Ollerhead (2017)	ELT Lecturers’ Experiences of a New Research Policy: Exploring Emotion and Academic Identity
Tülübaş and Göktürk (2020)	Neoliberal Governmentality and Performativity Culture in Higher Education: Reflections on Academic Identity
Ursin et al. (2020)	Emotionally Loaded Identity and Agency in Finnish Academic Work
van Winkel et al. (2018)	Identities of Research-Active Academics in New Universities: Towards a Complete Academic Profession Cross-Cutting Different Worlds of Practice
Waitere et al. (2011)	Choosing Whether to Resist or Reinforce the New Managerialism: The Impact of Performance-Based Research Funding on Academic Identity
Watermeyer and Tomlinson (2022)	Competitive Accountability and the Dispossession of Academic Identity: Haunted by an Impact Phantom
Watson (2011)	Accountability, Transparency, Redundancy: Academic Identities in an Era of ‘Excellence’
Winter and O’Donohue (2012)	Academic Identity Tensions in the Public University: Which Values Really Matter?
Ylijoki (2014)	University Under Structural Reform: A Micro-Level Perspective

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Aitken, G., and S. O’Carroll. 2020. “Academic Identity and Crossing Boundaries: The Role of the Programme Director in Postgraduate Taught Programmes.” Higher Education Research & Development 39 (7): 1410–1424. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1737658. *

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Alkhateeb, H., M. H. Romanowski, X. Du, and M. Cherif. 2020. “The Reconstruction of Academic Identity Through Language Policy: A Narrative Approach.” Asian Englishes 23 (3): 313–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2020.1785184. *

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Badiozaman, I. F. A. 2021. “Early Career Academics’ Identity Development in a Changing HE Landscape: Insights from a Malaysian Private University.” Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 41(3). 424–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1793732. *

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Chipindi, F. M., and F. Vavrus. 2018. “The Ontology of Mention: Contexts, Contests, and Constructs of Academic Identity Among University of Zambia Faculty.” FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education. 4(3). 135–150. https://doi.org/10.32865/fire2018437. *

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Chubb, J., and R. Watermeyer. 2017. “Artifice or Integrity in the Marketization of Research Impact? Investigating the Moral Economy of (Pathways To) Impact Statements within Research Funding Proposals in the UK and Australia.” Studies in Higher Education 42 (12): 2360–2372. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1144182. *

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Chubb, J., R. Watermeyer, and P. Wakeling. 2017. “Fear and Loathing in the Academy? The Role of Emotion in Response to an Impact Agenda in the UK and Australia.” Higher Education Research & Development. 36(3). 555–568. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1288709. *

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Degn, L. 2018. “Academic Sensemaking and Behavioural Responses: Exploring How Academics Perceive and Respond to Identity Threats in Times of Turmoil.” Studies in Higher Education 43 (2): 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1168796. *

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Dugas, D., A. E. Stich, L. N. Harris, and K. H. Summers. 2020. “‘I’m Being Pulled in Too Many Different Directions’: Academic Identity Tensions at Regional Public Universities in Challenging Economic Times.” Studies in Higher Education. 45(2). 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1522625. *

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Dugas, D., K. H. Summers, L. N. Harris, and A. E. Stich. 2018. “Shrinking Budgets, Growing Demands: Neoliberalism and Academic Identity Tension at Regional Public Universities.” American Educational Research Association Open. 4(1). 233285841875773. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858418757736. *

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Edwards, R. 2022. “Why Do Academics Do Unfunded Research? Resistance, Compliance and Identity in the UK Neo-Liberal University.” Studies in Higher Education. 47(4). 904–914. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1817891. *

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Cisternas, F., J. G. M. Carla, A. Soto Roy, and A. Corvalán Navia. 2021. “Exacerbated: Academic Identities and the Transformation of Chilean Higher Education.” Quadernos de Psicologia 23 (2): e1602. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/qpsicologia.1602. *

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Fardella, C. C., V. Sisto Campos, and F. Jiménez Vargas. 2015. “Nosotros los Académicos: Narrativas Identitarias y Autodefinición en la Universidad Actual.” [We the Academics: Identity Narratives and Self-Definition in the Current University] Universitas Psychologica 14 (5): 1625–1636. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy14-5.nani. *

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Gaus, N., and D. Hall. 2015. “Neoliberal Governance in Indonesian Universities: The Impact Upon Academic Identity.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. 35(9/10). 666–682. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-12-2014-0120. *

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Gumbi, T., and S. McKenna. 2020. “Reimagining Academic Identities in Response to Research Demands at Universities of Technology.” Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning 8 (1): 96–110. https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8i1.234. *

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Guzmán-Valenzuela, C., and M. M. Larraín. 2016. “Tensions in the Construction of Academic Identities in a Chilean University.” Estudios Pedagogicos. 42(3). 191–206. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07052016000400010. *

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Guzmán-Valenzuela, C., and R. Barnett. 2013. “Academic Fragilities in a Marketised Age: The Case of Chile.” British Journal of Educational Studies. 61(2). 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2013.776006. *

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Hladchenko, M. 2020. “Academic Identities in Ukrainian Research Universities Under Conditions of Means-Ends Decoupling at the State Level.” Journal of Further and Higher Education 44 (2): 244–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2018.1529740. *

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Hladchenko, M., and D. F. Westerheijden. 2018. “Means-Ends Decoupling and Academic Identities in Ukrainian University After the Revolution of Dignity.” European Journal of Higher Education. 8(2). 152–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2017.1370384. *

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Yating, H., S. K. Pang, and S. Yu. 2018. “Academic Identities and University Faculty Responses to New Managerialist Reforms: Experiences from China.” Studies in Higher Education 43 (1): 154–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1157860. *

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Jiménez Peralta, M. I. 2019. “Identidad Académica: Una Franquicia en Construcción.” Educar. 55(2). 543–560. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/educar.960. *

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Jones, D. R., T. Gardner, and H. Bui. 2022. “Vietnamese Early Career Academics’ Identity Work: Balancing Tensions Between East and West.” Studies in Higher Education. 47(6). 1284–1296. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.1876651. *

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Lee, S. J., H. Jung, and J. C. Shin. 2020. “Changes in Academics’ Identity, Job Satisfaction, and Job Stress Between 1992 and 2018 in South Korea.” Higher Education Forum 17:207–223. https://doi.org/10.15027/48961. *

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Lust, M., C. Huber, and J. Junne. 2019. “Academic Identity As a Discursive Resource for Resistance: The Case of Quality Management in German Higher Education Institutions.” Higher Education Policy. 32(1). 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0116-6. *

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Martimianakis, M. T., and L. Muzzin. 2015. “Discourses of Interdisciplinarity and the Shifting Topography of Academic Work: Generational Perspectives on Facilitating and Resisting Neoliberalism.” Studies in Higher Education. 40(8). 1454–1470. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1060708. *

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McCune, V. 2021. “Academic Identities in Contemporary Higher Education: Sustaining Identities That Value Teaching.” Teaching in Higher Education. 26(1). 20–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1632826. *

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Nordbäck, E., M. Hakonen, and J. Tienari. 2021. “Academic Identities and Sense of Place: A Collaborative Autoethnography in the Neoliberal University.” Management Learning. 53(2). 331–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076211006543. *

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Pflüger, J., and K. Mojescik. 2021. “Governance of Academic Teaching: Why Universities Introduce Funding Programs for Teaching and Why Academic Teachers Participate.” Teaching in Higher Education. 28(6). 1428–1445. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1900813. *

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Poutanen, M. 2022. “‘I Am Done with That Now.’ Sense of Alienations in Finnish Academia.” Journal of Education Policy 38 (4): 625–643. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2022.2067594. *

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Saqipi, B., and X. Rexhaj. 2020. “Moving from Survival to Development: Experiences in Kosovo from Developing Academic Identity in a Transitional Context.” European Journal of Education. 55(4). 528–541. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12425. *

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Selkrig, M., C. Manathunga, and R. Keamy. 2021. “Research Is … Making the Emotional Dimensions of Academics’ Research Visible.” Australian Educational Researcher 48 (4): 721–737. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00412-w. *

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Shams, F. 2019. “Managing Academic Identity Tensions in a Canadian Public University: The Role of Identity Work in Coping with Managerialism.” Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management. 41(6). 619–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1643960. *

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Shaw, M. A., D. W. Chapman, and N. L. Rumyantseva. 2013. “Organizational Culture in the Adoption of the Bologna Process: A Study of Academic Staff at a Ukrainian University.” Studies in Higher Education. 38(7). 989–1003. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.614336. *

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Tandilashvili, N., and A. Tandilashvili. 2022. “Academics’ Perception of Identity (Re)construction: A Value Conflict Created by Performance Orientation.” Journal of Management & Governance. 26(2). 389–416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-022-09627-8. *

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