In educational organizations, the teaching staff has traditionally had a lot of influence on the content of their work and the pedagogy. Within the last two decades, changes in educational organizations can be defined as the shift from this administrative loose coupling toward tight, more managerial coupling. This study utilizes a qualitatively…

This article contributes to the current discussions on academic teacher identity in universities. In the managerial university and in the context of expanding HE, teaching has become a more complex, more problematised and more managed activity. This article approaches identity as identification on different levels of academic work and asks: What…

For the last two decades, Finnish universities have faced the implementation of new systems of control and undergone dramatic changes that have worsened academic working conditions -- such as corporatisation and budget cuts. This article explores Finnish academics' experiences of university reforms with a special focus on the consequences it has…

Linguistic diversity is growing in Higher Education, driven by factors like internationalization and digitalization. This trend necessitates a reevaluation of language practices within academic communities. Language Centres play a crucial role in modelling effective practices and reshaping these practices to address the multilingual needs of…

Commercialization and commodification of higher education has been subjected to wide critique in academic literature. The relative privilege of academic professions seems to be on the decline, as universities are subjected to increasing competitive pressures -- pressures which these institutions pass on to academics. Academics experience a loss of…

We need to know what it means to be an expert in working life today. Universities are often accused of neglecting the basic idea that higher education should be relevant to working life, and research on the subject of expertise in today's workplace is lacking. Thirteen experts from different fields were interviewed and the obtained data were…

The invasion of managerialism in universities has changed the prerequisites for academic work. Decision making and control over academic work based on the expertise of academics have declined; in turn, managers have gained more decision-making power. Our study's target group comprises academics representing educational sciences in two Finnish…

Research has shown that a tenure track incorporates both commitment and control aspects: the career system offers junior-level academics long-term job prospects, but subjects them to performance control. This study complements existing research on tenure track positions, which has mostly been conducted in northern America. Universities in Finland…

This article analyses performance dialogs (PDs) in the university context in Finland. These are held annually between employers and employees. The study was carried out to assess the efficacy of this technique. Research methods included an electronic questionnaire over two different years delivered to the whole staff of the Department of Teacher…

This article addresses the issue of gender imbalance in Finnish universities in the domain of physics as a historical and dialectical phenomenon. Drawing from the Gramscian notion of hegemony and the activity-theoretical notion of contradiction, this paper analyses gendered hegemonic and contradictory forces steering physicists' careers. This…

This article investigates what Finnish academics on short fixed-term contracts consider to be the effects of having children on work and careers. The study is framed by the context of the current state of the university sector, its neoliberal and entrepreneurial tendencies and its claims to meritocracy. Informants express relative happiness with…