Gold-diggers, supporters and inclusive profilers : Strategies for profiling research in Swedish higher education

• Widespread reforms of governance and funding of universities has taken place in most Western countries, many of them influenced by New Public Management (NPM), which includes intensified attempts by the government to steer academic research in a utility direction. One way to do this is through university profiles and priorities of research. This article aims to describe how the changing system of assessing and funding research impact Swedish higher-education institutions (HEIs) regarding the universities’ internal organisation of research and research priorities. A study of seven Swedish universities and university colleges shows that governmental prompting on concentration of research resources in some ways has been followed by all HEIs. Strategies for profiling research are found to be done in different ways; including digging after ‘gold’, as supporting priorities from bottom-up or profiling only by words. Ambitions to profile research are strongest among the central university management and vice chancellors. In the lower layers of HEIs, academic norms prove resistant to quick changes.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

research profiles

higher education

governance

organisation

Statsvetenskap

Political Science

Pedagogics and Educational Sciences

Pedagogik och Utbildningsvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)