Platforms and Institutions in the Post-Pandemic University: a Case Study of Social Media and the Impact Agenda

In this paper, we argue that digital platforms play an important role within higher education, not least of all when Covid-19 has made remote working the norm. An increasingly rich field of theoretical and empirical work has helped us understand platforms as socio-technical infrastructures which shape the activity of their users. Their insertion into higher education raises urgent institutional questions which necessitate dispensing with the individualised mode of analysis and instrumentalised conception of technology which often accompany these topics. We outline an alternative approach through a case study of social media in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, exploring the incorporation of platforms into research evaluation. Our findings suggest social media is invoked differently across disciplinary groupings, as well as platform metrics being cited in a naive and problematic matter. We offer a neo-institutionalist analysis which identifies a tendency towards isomorphism, with perceived ‘best practice’ being seized upon in response to uncertainty. We suggest such an approach is urgently needed given the role which digital platforms will play in building the post-Pandemic university.

Disziplinäre Entdifferenzierung durch Leistungsbewertung? Der Fall Geschichtswissenschaft in Großbritannien

The contribution examines whether systematic research assessments go hand in hand with a dedifferentiation of disciplinary cultures. The case of application for this question is the British Research Excellence Framework (REF). The analysis reveals that history departments in the upper rank groups of the REF publish first and foremost articles in high impact journals, while those departments that are not rewarded by the assessment publish mainly contributions to edited volumes. The contribution concludes that research assessments that are generically applied across disciplines and that are both symbolically and materially efficacious go hand in hand with a dedifferentiation of disciplinary cultures in terms of publication activities.

Telling tales of impact: as seen through the eyes of user assessors

In this chapter we turn our attention to those charged with the task of judging the 'reach' and 'significance' of impact claimed by academic researchers in narrative case studies in REF2014. Knowledge pertaining to how the societal and economic impact of scientific research is evaluated is sparse. This is especially true in the context of the UK's national system of research assessment, the Research Excellence Framework (REF), in light of the confidentiality and rules of non-disclosure enforced by Research England and the UK Research & Innovation (previously the Higher Education Funding Council for England - HEFCE).