Working in a ‘new’ university: in the shadow of the Research Assessment Exercise?

What it is like to be an academic working in a ‘new’ university in the 2000s depends upon specific contexts and individual biographies. Even so, it is the case that change, contingent upon local and national policy initiatives, is endemic in the higher education sector and has had some impact upon most people working there. This article explores some of the work‐related perceptions and experiences of a group of staff working in a School of Education at a ‘new’ university with a view to gaining a sense of their understanding of what being an academic means to them. These people, who had, initially, been hired essentially as lecturers, were facing increased demands to become ‘research active’. Not only did these demands lead to increased workloads, they also had implications for professional and personal identities, and, consequently, for how people felt about, and undertook, their work.