Perverse Audit Culture and Accountability of the Modern Public University

By Russell Craig, Joel H. Amernic, D. Tourish. 2014

145 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The audit culture which has developed in public universities has led to counter-productive outcomes. Managerial oversight of academic work has reached a critical tipping point. Extensive auditing of research output by means of performance management assessment regimes motivated by a New Public Management mentality has damaged individual scholarship and threatened academic freedom. Such assessment regimes are perverse and conducive to the development of psychotic tendencies by universities. It is important to understand the effects of a perverse audit culture when re-thinking and reforming approaches to university performance management. We suggest ways for public universities to acknowledge the need for accountability while remaining true to core academic purposes.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Political Science and International Relations

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/30860f402226dbf3ffca9ff78ee7df575cb853e0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. Paul F. Wouters
2. R. Deem

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. Max Visser
2. Sarah de Rijcke
3. Shlomo Yedidia Y. Tarba
4. W. Hirsch
5. M. Eraut

In Political Science and International Relations

1. Paul F. Wouters
2. Peter Rodgers
3. Björn Hammarfelt
4. A. Rushforth
5. Thomas Franssen
6. R. Deem
7. Sarah de Rijcke

Citations in the corpus

• Evaluation practices and effects of indicator use : a literature review (2016, background): “More fundamental changes in the character of academic settings as independent and critical institutions (Shore 2008; 2010; Craig et al. 2014) as well as increased levels of stress and anxiety are also reported in personal accounts and interview-based analyses (Chandler et al. 2002; Gill 2009; Sá et…”
• The Performative University: ‘Targets’, ‘Terror’ and ‘Taking Back Freedom’ in Academia (2020, background): “For example, managing the process of achieving accreditations, performance measurement, quality assurance and excellence frameworks offers such front-stage performances of concealment, under the cloak of transparency and accountability (Craig et al., 2014).”