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Publicly funded universities have been under increasing pressure to provide evidence regarding the economic value of their core activities, not least when it comes to the social benefits accrued from the research mission. This study offers a glimpse of Nordic perspectives on the social impact of research from the positions of policymakers, university leadership, and academics. From a macro perspective, the paper investigates to what extent Norwegian policy actors rely on the excellence/relevance discourse in their plans for the future development of higher education. At the meso level, the study explores how academic leaders make sense of internal and external pressures (drivers and strategic agendas) to produce and transfer knowledge that addresses social problems. Perry and May's (2006) typology of the relevance-excellence interplay is used as a framework for interpreting the findings. The findings reveal a complex mix of logics underpinning hegemonic discourses, strategic actions, and postures. Excellence and relevance were found to be deeply embedded in the activities of sub-units, academic groups, and individual academics.

Managerialism in higher education has gained prominence in recent decades. One of the crucial elements of this approach is the steering of the higher education sector, including the introduction of multiple forms of evaluation of academic work. Little is known about how academics evaluate themselves in comparison to their colleagues. Therefore, the focus of this paper is on how academics evaluate their own performance in teaching and research. The article uses survey data (2014-2015) from Norway, Finland and Sweden. Professors' and associate professors' answers were considered. Our research relies on social-cognitive theory to develop a set of hypothesis. The empirical findings show that academics are likely to perceive their own and their unit's research performance as higher when compared to that of their peers and similar units. Associate professors consider themselves to be more performative in teaching, whilst professors highlight their research performance. Finally, the gender differences were found to be minimal.

The political, social, and institutional environments in which contemporary universities operate have changed rather dramatically over the past two decades in ways that threaten the resilience of the academic core, both in its ability to map knowledge comprehensively and also to maintain a balance between the branches of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. This paper traces historical changes (2003-2019) in the academic core of two "flagship" research-intensive universities located in Northern Europe. The results show that some branches of the academic core are undergoing dynamic processes of program churn that make them resilient. Furthermore, the data show that this resilience is enabled in large part by bridging different branches of knowledge by establishing what we term interbranch programs. In addition to the abovementioned findings, the paper links ongoing discussions regarding change in HE systems and institutions to the literature on organizational resilience, and it advances insights for a possible future theory of how adaptation plays out in the academic core over time., Author(s): Mitchell Young [sup.1] , Rómulo Pinheiro [sup.2] , Aleksandar Avramovic [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/024d6js02, grid.4491.8, 0000 0004 1937 116X, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies, Charles [...]

This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university-community engagement (UCE) as an academic mission. The aim of the work is to outline the ways in which UCE has been functioning since the turbulent onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The study undertakes a systematic review of the UCE literature to identify major trends, raising important questions regarding ongoing scholarly discussions and managerial/policy debates on the subject. The results show seven distinct types of engagement responses by higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe. In addition, the review identified that HEIs faced difficulties in either adapting existing engagement practices or while establishing new ones, especially regarding the efficient use of digital technologies. In terms of implications, the findings suggest that the pandemic has resulted in new debates about the societal role of HEIs, with medium- and long-term implications for policy and management.

There is growing interest in the underlying mechanisms affecting female leaders in Higher Education (HE). This article compares four countries -- Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden to identify key structural conditions (enablers and barriers) for female representation in academia by studying the regulative framework of government policy. Two research questions are guiding the analysis: first, what (if any) policy instruments are chosen to increase the number of female leaders in HE? Second, to what extent does this choice of instruments mirror either sectorial logic (HE) or national policy styles? The empirical results of the article show that while processes of policy diffusion are observable at the sectoral level, gender equality policies and instrument choice differ considerably in the four countries under consideration. The article thus concludes that national policy styles need to be understood as enabling and disabling policy factors for gender equality in HE shaping the process of translating diffused models decisively.

As businesses are coming to terms with the challenges derived from the COVID-19 crisis, they are realizing the need to do more for and with their local communities than being co-located or having business relationships. Business leaders are learning that engaging with local communities can be helpful in steering their business through crises and helping to prepare for the future. The central idea of this article is that businesses can learn from universities about engaging with local communities. It outlines five key lessons, illustrating them with examples and relating them to key concepts and perspectives from the literature. The emphasis in these lessons is on their potential to make businesses self-reliant, socially responsible and resilient. As businesses look for lessons, frameworks and best practices for engaging with their communities during and after a significant crisis, these five lessons from universities can point them toward new directions that would be hard to find within the business community. The lessons can be used by business leaders to design initiatives and implement policies and practices for engaging with their local communities in ways that are mutually beneficial and promote long-term sustainability.

We explore increasing complexity, resilience (how a system adapts and responds to increasing complexity and radical change), and potential human resource management (HRM) responses to change in higher education at a Nordic institution. HRM is seen as a shared function. As an empirical illustration, we interviewed nine leading academics in dominant and leading administrative positions in one Nordic university. Responses to a major change (CoARA) were discussed. We analyze the possible HRM responses in the context of major but fuzzy changes: How do leading academics forming the HRM policy perceive expectations of role change and how do the respondents demonstrate resilience when interpreting the early signs of a major change? The overall initial reactions to the change (CoARA) were hesitant. We propose the concept of emergent resilience and a model to describe its dynamics. Potential implications for HRM in the face of complexity and change are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the accountability mechanisms introduced in the universities in the Nordic countries by building on a typology of accountability types. By utilising survey data, it analyses how academics experience the changes in accountability mechanisms and how they perceive the impact of these changes on their performance. The analysis shows that especially political/bureaucratic and managerial accountability demands have been strengthened. This development has fostered debates on how to measure academic performance. Some academics, more in Denmark than in the other countries, have experienced the development as a sign of mistrust.