I wrote a piece for 'Future Campus' in which are argue that for academic publication to have a future, a radical departure from current productivity-focused models and incentives is needed: futurecampus.com.au/2026/03/10/t...

The Hidden Costs of Research Productivity

High levels of publication output are not necessarily a reason to celebrate. In order for them to continue to be a valued part of academic work, a radical departure from current productivity-focused m...

futurecampus.com.au

More news coverage (in 'ResearchProfessional News') for our paper examining what academic staff in Australia are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden (to access the paper see the pinned post in my profile): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...

University efficiency drives may have opposite effect, study finds - Research Professional News

Teaching and research staff say reforms mean more red tape for them, Australian survey reports

researchprofessionalnews.com

The administrative burden in Australian universities is most keenly felt by teaching and research staff, according to...[the] study from the University of Melbourne’s faculty of education'. 2/2 Link to underpinning research: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...

Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey

Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema

academic.oup.com

Today's edition of Future Campus includes a piece discussing our recently published research article (available open access) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities: futurecampus.com.au/2025/08/08/c...

Centralisation and System Upgrades Increase Academic Workload

Centralisation and system changes are increasing academic workloads according to a new survey.

futurecampus.com.au

The Times Higher Education (THE) covers our just published research article (open access - see pinned post) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities. The THE piece can be accessed here (requires a subscription): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/automat...

Automated university systems ‘make administrative burden worse’

Risk-averse mindset, fervour for meetings and ‘time sink’ labour-saving ploys leave everybody overburdened, finds Melbourne study

timeshighereducation.com

Our article examining what academic staff are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden in Australian universities is now published online. It draws on survey responses from 350 staff from 37 Australian unis. Available open access at: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...

Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey

Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema

academic.oup.com

Gwilym Croucher and I wrote a short piece for 'Future Campus' that adds to discussions of supply of and demand for PhD graduates in Australia and makes some specific policy recommendations: futurecampus.com.au/2025/07/07/h...

How Many PhD’s Does Australia Need?

Compared to many other countries, Australia trains a large number of PhDs per capita each year. Yet that has not stopped recent controversy over the future supply and demand for […]

futurecampus.com.au

📣 I am very excited about my new book "#University #Governance, #Management and the #Academic #Profession" is out! 🙌 Thank you so much to co-editors Prof. Monica Marquina and Prof. Glen Jones for great collaboration ! 📘 Check it out through Springer: 👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

University Governance, Management and the Academic Profession

Explores issues and trends regarding the transformation of governance, Is written by scholars engaged in largest comparative studies of higher education

link.springer.com

Our paper analysing academic staff experiences of administrative burden at Australian universities recently got accepted for publication. It should be available online soon. This is quite a chunky paper focusing on what these staff view as the key dimensions and drivers of admin burden at work.

Oh the joy when your university has just released a new and mandatory travel portal which obviously isn't yet ready for users to use...

Just published (open access): In our article, we explore the key institutional forces that have led to casual academic employment being regarded as legitimate and normal element of university activity in Australia: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The rise of a “casualised” workforce: A conceptual account of the institutional forces legitimising contingent academic employment in Australia - Higher Education

Contingent academic employment has become a salient feature of many higher education systems over recent decades. At the same time, there remains limited understanding of how such employment has come ...

link.springer.com

The THE just published a niece piece discussing our recent article examining professional staff perspectives on administrative burden at Australian universities (subscription-based): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/endless...

Endless restructures ‘make campuses more inefficient, not less’

Surveyed professional staff blame constant restructuring for escalating administrative burden and deteriorating administrative efficiency

timeshighereducation.com

New publication (open access): Our article examines how professional staff at Australian universities see the administrative burdens they encounter at work, and what they regard as effective strategies to reduce such burdens (e.g., fewer restructures!): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fewer restructures, more consultation, better recognition: key recommendations on tackling administrative burdens from Australian universities’ professional staff

In recent years, the issue of administrative burden in universities has received growing attention around the world. Although professional staff are central to the operation of universities, little...

tandfonline.com

This is a fantastic opportunity. I had a great and productive time at the College last year and can highly recommend this fellowship scheme.

College for Social Sciences and Humanities | UA Ruhr@college-uaruhr.bsky.social · last yr.

#Call #CfA: The College invites advanced international researchers in #socialsciences / #humanities to apply for the Senior #Fellowship Programme until 25 May 2025. Join the #UARuhr for a six-month #research fellowship starting in 2026 www.college-uaruhr.de/cfa-fellowships-2026-27

Interested in how and why turning universities into strategically managed organisations may make them more bureaucratic also? If you are then you may want to check out our recent paper. Now published as part of an issue: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Strategic Bureaucracy: The Convergence of Bureaucratic and Strategic Management Logics in the Organizational Restructuring of Universities - Minerva

Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loa...

link.springer.com

This is really worth a read - provocative but spot on in many ways: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Does authorship mean anything when academic papers are simply citable tokens?

The bibliometric infrastructure of citations has become an inescapable organising feature of academic life. Drawing on a range of evidence of the use and misuse of citations data, Stuart Macdonald …

blogs.lse.ac.uk

I just learnt that the first article arising from our 'admin burden survey' conducted across Australian universities will be published soon. This article will look at the perspectives of universities' professional staff and their recommendations how to reduce admin burdens. I'll post more soon.

What's going on with major publishers and their proofing processes? I just received the proofs of an article and the list of references has been totally mangled. Second time this happened in a row now (same publisher btw). It's really hard to see any value-add in all of this (to the contrary).

Out of interest, has anyone got the feeling that peer reviews have become more rushed/superficial lately? I had a few occasions lately where reports asked for addressing/adding things that were clearly discussed already in the submitted paper. Easy to point out in revisions, but still a bit funny.

Job alert ✨ Colleagues at Uni. Agder, Norway, are looking to appoint a #postdoc interested in, i.a. research policy, funding, evaluation, to work on a Horizon project on the impact of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 3-year contract, full-time, starting in spring 2025 Deadline: Jan 15

Earlier today I completed a review for one of the major journals in my field. A couple of hours after submitting my review, the same journal asked me to review another paper. It feels a bit much. Or are journals really struggling that badly to find reviewers?

I am just doing my university's online compliance module on managing information. It's bit funny how it repeatedly states to lock one's office to keep information safe - when the majority of university staff are actually working in open place office spaces..

Important paper given the strong and entrenched focus on competition in research policy, including here in Australia:

Lutz Bornmann@lutzb.bsky.social · 2y ago

The costs of competition in distributing scarce research funds www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I really wonder how much staff time and, ultimately, $$$ at Australian universities is spent on completing online compliance modules. And many of these modules really don't seem to be relevant/fit for purpose at a first glance. This really must be quite a substantial investment/cost.