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The Impact of Performance Indicators on the Work of University Academics: Evidence from Australian Universities
Author(s) -
Taylor Jeanette
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2273.00173
Subject(s) - incentive , work (physics) , order (exchange) , psychology , higher education , medical education , pedagogy , public relations , sociology , political science , business , engineering , economics , medicine , mechanical engineering , finance , law , microeconomics
This paper examines the impact of the application of performance indicators on the teaching and research activities of 152 university academics from four representative Australian universities. Most of the participants reported an increase in pressure to focus on the activities measured by the teaching and research performance indicators. A majority of the participants also indicated that their approach to teaching and research have changed. In research, this essentially meant focusing on external research grants applications and publications, and maximising the quantity produced from these activities. Some staff did use various strategies to increase their scores such as writing shorter papers in order to increase the quantity of publications. Moreover, a sizeable proportion of the participants indicated a shift in their work priorities towards research at the expense of teaching. One possible reason could be the lack of special incentives to increase their emphasis on teaching.