Why do academics do unfunded research? Resistance, compliance and identity in the UK neo-liberal university

Bibliographic Data

ID4098406
AuthorsRosalind Edwards (0000-0002-3512-9029, SSPC, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume47
Issue4
Pages904-914
Publication date2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Higher Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0307-5079 • E-ISSN: 1470-174X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03075079.2020.1817891
OpenAlexW3083787623
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited27

This article explores the understandings of academics who carry out unfunded research and the nature of their academic identity, in a context where research funding is realigned to government and corporate needs, and the academic career is recast as an entrepreneurial project. It draws on in-depth interviews with academics working in UK universities, at different career stages in a range of disciplines. Main findings include that research is ‘self-funded’ rather than unfunded, and that participants often decided not to apply for external funding. A major reason for this was a sense of resistance motivated by intellectual creativity and flexible autonomy. At the same time, unfunded research also could be compliance with a neo-liberalised university agenda, viewed as entrepreneurial. Unfunded research can be viewed as a way of managing tensions between wanting and needing to do research, throwing light on the identity of being a contemporary intellectual-entrepreneurial academic in the neo-liberalised university

Academic freedom · Autonomy · Creativity · Higher education · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Law