Abstract
The paper examines data on references tostudents made by manager-academics in 16 UKuniversities whilst giving accounts of theircareers and practices, and reflecting onaspects of the current roles and priorities ofhigher education institutions. The issuesraised are of wider interest than the UK, sincethe contradictory pressures of teaching andresearch and learning versus seeking newsources of funding are common to highereducation in many countries. The focus andmethodology of the Economic and Social ResearchCouncil funded project on which the paper isbased are outlined, before discussing how thetheoretical interests of the project relate tothe student, the ways in which the student is asignificant aspect of current higher educationpolicies, and the contested status and identityof the student in higher education discourseand research. The changing nature of thestudent population, the relationship betweenmanager-academics' concerns with the studentand their institutional context, their majorpreoccupations in their roles, and how thesepreoccupations relate to level of seniority inmanagement are also considered. We concludethat whilst current UK higher education policyemphasises the student, responses atinstitutional and individual levels focus onorganisational, resource and time implicationsof the student body, rather than the studenthim/herself. Furthermore, it is noted thatsenior manager-academics roles tend to removetheir incumbents from contact with students. It is suggested that manager-academics needboth more contact with students and moreunderstanding of their situation andconcerns.
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Johnson, R.N., Deem, R. Talking of students: Tensions and contradictions for the manager-academic and the university in contemporary higher education. Higher Education 46, 289–314 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025377826704
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025377826704