Research Evaluation and Its Implications for Academic Research in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands

Abstract

The logic of performativity has increasingly gained ground in policies targeting the evaluation of universities in general and research practices in particular. Using the research evaluations of British and Dutch universities from 1980 to 2009 as a case, the paper uncovers the effects of the shifts in the mix of logics of academic community and performativity on university management and research practices of academics. Despite the different institutional environments which are represented by differences in the evaluation mechanisms, similarities between stability and change in academic practices abound. In both countries the importance of institutional managers has increased, judgment of research performance has led to focusing on publishability, quantification of outputs, short-termism, 'salami publishing'. Differences include higher stress levels and higher academic mobility in the UK. To conclude, research evaluation has higher stakes in the UK than in the Netherlands, which points to the stronger adoption of the logic of performativity in the UK system.