‘Under attack’: Responsibility, crisis and survival anxiety amongst manager-academics in UK universities

Abstract

Based on a small-scale qualitative study, the article explores the perceptions of manager-academics on the state of the UK’s higher education sector. Universities have been undergoing a process of marketisation for some time now, but recent changes to the regulation and audit of their activities – as well as uncertainty engendered by broader events – arguably make this a turbulent period for the sector. Despite a growing body of critical work on academic labour in the ‘neoliberalising’ university, the management of these institutions remains an under-researched subject. The article considers perceptions of crisis and responsibility amongst a group of manager-academics who conceive the sector as being ‘under attack’, before exploring the relationship of ‘survival anxiety’ to audit, metrics and rankings. The article concludes by considering why the perceptions of senior academic managers matter for the future of universities.