ABSTRACT Trust crucially shapes cooperation among social actors across micro, meso and macro levels, yet its impact on higher education policy and management remains under‐researched. This study positions trust at the forefront of higher education governance by examining its dynamics, influencing factors and effects on board roles. Grounded in literature, we develop an analytical model to investigate the complex interplay between organisational factors, formal role design of boards, actors' trustworthiness and board roles. This model is applied to three Hungarian universities undergoing structural reform. In this ‘model change’ process, boards of newly established public interest asset management foundations replaced the state as owners, gaining substantial authority over institutions. This shift provides a unique opportunity to explore how trust between the board and the university affects board roles, offering insights into trust dynamics during systemic transitions.
ABSTRACT This study explores the unspoken and stigmatized experiences—taboos—encountered by five Asian women pursuing doctoral degrees in the United States. Using a merged methodology of autoethnography and narrative inquiry, the paper places the first author's self‐reflected narrative next to the stories of four other female doctoral graduates originally from Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Indonesia, spanning disciplines in education, chemistry and biotechnology. Through these reconstructed narratives, the study reveals how cultural expectations, gendered norms and institutional pressures contribute to silences around emotional struggle, academic failure, mental health and identity negotiation. Informed by intersectionality as a theoretical framework, the research highlights how these women navigated doctoral life at the intersection of multiple margins while struggling to articulate taboos related to time, place and institutional resistance. The study attempts to disrupt dominant discourses of academic success by centring voices often rendered invisible and to advocate for more compassionate, culturally responsive doctoral education.
ABSTRACT This paper explores how university academics navigate knowledge exchange micro‐level tensions. At the micro‐level, university‐based knowledge exchange requires academics as key actors to navigate competing demands and conflicting priorities. There is a paucity of research at the micro‐level exploring university‐based knowledge exchange activities from an individual actor perspective. Using a qualitative approach based on 32 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with academics and professional staff members in three UK universities, we found how academics employ ambidexterity to traverse knowledge exchange tensions. We identified four types of knowledge exchange micro‐level tensions— motivational , structural , geographical and resource tensions. Based on our analysis, we develop a micro‐level framework that illuminates and mitigates micro‐level tensions with university‐based knowledge exchange activities.
ABSTRACT Drawing on data from two interdisciplinary research centres in a German university, this study seeks to understand the extent to which different institutional logics influence the strategies and practices of interdisciplinary research centres, as well as how university actors accommodate the various logics in their work. Professional logics were predominant in shaping the work practices of academics, whereas market and industry logics played a larger role for middle management, especially in establishing the credibility of interdisciplinary research in terms of its capacity to generate external funding. Reflecting a managerial logic, interdisciplinarity was framed as a way to enhance the profile and international reputation of the university. The convergence of professional and market and industry logics was most salient during the process of seeking funding, as well as during centre meetings when directors and academics sought to establish how scientific interests were aligned with the priorities of external funders and industry partners.
ABSTRACT This study used Response‐Driven Sampling (RDS) to construct an academic peer network for PhD students in China and conducted a questionnaire survey. After testing 639 valid samples that met the random recruitment assumption, empirical analysis was conducted on academic peer network effects on the research competence of PhD candidates (RCPC). The results show that RCPC is significantly influenced by academic peer network size, homogeneity, and peer competence. (1) Peer competence demonstrates the strongest positive effect on RCPC, particularly for those with low initial research competence. (2) In comparison, the effect of network homogeneity is relatively smaller and predominantly negative. The homogeneity between PhD students and their academic peers remains relatively low across the sample, with all values below 0.7. (3) The network size of weak ties does not significantly affect RCPC. However, among strong ties, the number of peers from other departments and universities exhibits an inverted U‐shaped relationship with self‐assessed competence, with the optimal network size being 16 peers. This study not only suggests PhD students strengthen their social connections with peers from different disciplines and institutions, aiming to maintain a moderate‐sized network within strong ties, thereby enhancing their own abilities and achieving long‐term development, but also indicates the applicability and generalizability of applying RDS to peer network surveys.
