ABSTRACT

This paper explores how academics navigate the Higher Education (HE) landscape being reshaped by the convergence of unbundling, marketisation and digitisation processes. Social Realism distinguishes three layers of social reality (in this case higher education): the empirical, the actual and the real. The empirical layer is presented by the academics and their teaching; the actual are the institutional processes of teaching, learning, assessment, mode of provision (online, blended); the real are the power and regulatory mechanisms that shape the first two and affect academics’ agency. Two dimensions of academics’ experiences and perceptions are presented. The structural dimension reflects academics’ perceptions of the emergent organisation of the education environment including the changing narratives around digitisation, marketisation and unbundling in the context of digital inequalities. The professional dimension aspects play out at the actor level with respect to work-related issues, particularly their own. This dimension is portrayed in academics’ concerns about ownership and control.

摘要

本文探讨了学术界如何应对因分拆、市场化和数字化进程的融合而重塑的高等教育（HE）格局。社会现实主义区分了社会现实（在本例中为高等教育）的三个层次：经验的、实际的和真实的。实证层由学者及其教学呈现；实际是教学、学习、评估、提供模式（在线、混合）的制度流程；真正的是塑造前两者并影响学术机构的权力和监管机制。呈现了学者的经验和看法的两个维度。结构维度反映了学者对教育环境新兴组织的看法，包括围绕数字化不断变化的叙述，数字不平等背景下的市场化和分拆。专业维度方面在演员层面上表现出与工作相关的问题，尤其是他们自己的问题。这一维度体现在学术界对所有权和控制权的担忧中。