Who do they think they are? The changing identities of professional administrators and managers in UK higher education

Abstract

Contemporary universities, serving mass higher education markets, find themselves delivering complex, broadly based projects such as student support and welfare, human resource development, and business enterprise. Established concepts of academic administration and devolved management have been overlaid by more fluid institutional structures and cultures, with a softening of internal and external boundaries (Whitchurch, 2004, 2005). These developments have caused major shifts in the identities of professional administrators and managers as they adopt more project‐oriented roles crossing functional and organisational boundaries. This paper considers the dynamics of these changes, in terms that move beyond conventional assumptions about administration and management. While identities have been defined traditionally via structured domains such as professional knowledges, institutional boundaries, and the policy requirements of the higher education sector, an emergent project domain has fostered the development of an increasingly multi‐professional grouping of staff, with implications for career futures.

Acknowledgements

1. The author wishes to acknowledge the support of King's College London in her undertaking of the research project referred to in this paper.

2. The paper originated as a presentation to the Conference of the Association of Tertiary Education Managers, September 28–30, 2005, Perth, Australia.