The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions

Boyd, Pete ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2234-3595 and Smith, Caroline (2016) The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions. Studies in Higher Education, 41 (4). pp. 678-695.

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Abstract

Internationally, the increasing emphasis in universities on the quality of teaching, on student employability and on a corporate approach to entrepreneurial income generation has created a tension around the primacy afforded to published research outputs as a focus for academic work and status. In this study, a framework for academic socialisation is developed and used to understand how lecturers in health professional fields attempt to ‘juggle’ four areas of work – teaching, leadership, knowledge exchange and research activity. Studying academics in professional fields, with a well-developed focus on employability and strong partnerships with employers, provides useful insight into contemporary academic work and identity. A significant proportion of lecturers in health professional fields, even of those working in research-intensive universities, appear to ‘subvert’ the paradigmatic primacy afforded across the higher education sector to research outputs and identity as a researcher.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Studies in Higher Education
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge) for Society for Research into Higher Education
ISSN:	1470-174X
Departments:	Professional Services > Research Office & Graduate School (ROGS)
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	09 Nov 2015 16:17
Last Modified:	05 May 2025 08:00
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/1671

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