Administrative roles in academia—potential clash with research output and teaching quality?

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Abstract

Academic practitioners are judged and evaluated by the different academic institutions and by government regulators associated with these institutions. There are various criteria for evaluating the work of faculty members in the areas of research, teaching, and contribution to the department, the academic institution and the community. In Israel, much significance is attributed to research criteria, particularly due to the budgeting method of public academic institutions and the strong emphasis on research output. At the same time, faculty members are required to occupy various administrative roles related to the activity of the department, the faculty, and the academic institution, concurrent with their research and teaching occupations. Hence, the current study seeks to examine whether these circumstances generate a clash between the array of functions and tasks required of faculty members. In other words, do faculty members who assume an administrative role ‘pay the price’ and are their research and teaching outcomes affected? To examine this issue, data were collected on the performance measures of 485 senior faculty members in a case study of a single university-level institution, with the aim of examining the associations between personal-familial background variables and professional background variables, and outcomes regarding research output, teaching quality and academic administration. The research findings indicate a drop in research output measures and teaching survey scores of faculty members who occupied an administrative role. The research findings indicate an association between the administrative occupation of faculty members and their research and teaching measures, while distinguishing between the different academic faculties, academic ranks, and gender. These findings have fundamental implications for the policy regarding promotion of faculty members, recognizing the “price” they pay for taking part in administrative roles, particularly in the initial years of their academic career.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2357914
JournalCogent Education
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Keywords

  • academic administration
  • Assessment
  • faculty promotion
  • Higher education
  • Higher Education Management
  • research output
  • Stephen Darwin, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile
  • Study of Higher Education
  • teaching quality
  • teaching surveys

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