This article discusses the intensification of research performance demands in UK universities in relation to the complex terrain of academic identity formation. It considers whether a demand for academic researchers to produce and evidence economic and societal impact -- in the rewards game of the UK's performance-based research funding system,…

Public engagement (PE) is habitually recognized and advocated across the higher education (HE) community--especially by regulator and funder constituencies--as an intrinsically good thing. In the UK, a number of initiatives focused on embedding a culture of PE within universities have sought to further this claim, yet have done so without…

A performance-based funding system like the United Kingdom's "Research Excellence Framework" (REF) symbolizes the re-rationalization of higher education according to neoliberal ideology and New Public Management technologies. The REF is also significant for disclosing the kinds of behaviour that characterize universities' response to…