Whose Truth Are We Looking For?From the purity of academic quality to the ‘dirty world’ of research

NOMA Summer School 2013 From Principles to Practice: HE Policy and Research Project Management

Monday 21 January, 2013; University of Western Cape

Peter Maassen

University of Oslo

Reformulate:

From the (relative) purity of Master and PhD work to muddy, multi-arena and multi-layered world of research

Diverse research-arenas and -realities

Context (national, institutional, disciplinary) determines nature of diversity

Essential general distinction:

Basic (fundamental, curiosity-driven, etc.) research, incl.:•Review•Supervision•Editorial work

versusWork which is research-based or –related, for example:•Contract research work•Advisory work•Evaluative work•Expert work

Specific nature of Social Science/Humanities Research

Lack of conceptual/theoretical agreementLarge, diverse set of methodological choicesContext determined relevance of research problemsGrowing complexity of social phenomenaLack of funding for basic researchLack of (tenured) academic positionsChallenging relationship with governmental policy making practicesRelatively low status

Specificity of Research in the area of Higher Education

“Paradoxically, many politicians and administrators in this field as well as the academic profession itself, while trying to persuade society that systematic scholarship is superior to practitioners’ experience and anecdotes, are most skeptical about the value of scholarship and research if it comes to their practical turf, i.e. higher education.”(Teichler, 2000, p. 4)

Tendency in HE research: double-isolatedness

1. Study HE as an isolated sector2. Build HE studies on previous HE research, isolated from general social sciences and humanities

How about HE Policy Studies?

Otto von Bismarck

Policies and laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made

„Politics concerns the understanding of the possible“

Challenges for HE Policy Research

LegitimacyRelevanceContinuityConnectedness/embededness

Relevant Literature; examples, focusing on change dynamics (structural and cultural) in universities and higher education systems:

Ramirez and Christensen (2012)The formalization of the university: rules, roots, and routes

Christensen, Gornitzka and Maassen (2013)Global Pressures and National Cultures: A Nordic University Template?

Possible career options for HE Policy PhD holders, incl.

1.Academic career (inside HE institutions)2.Academic career (outside HE institutions)3.Administrative career (inside HE institutions)4.Administrative career (outside HE institutions)5.Bureaucracy (Policy related)6.Private sector, incl. consultancy (Quick and dirty research?)7.Advocacy work

Of relevance:

What are the main factors that influence your choice of research problem/research questions?Where do you want to position yourself in the field: as far away as possible from policy (and other) practices, or as close to these practices as possible?

What does the growing expectation with respect to the impact of academic research mean for your research career?