The aim of this study is to identify the expressions of legitimacy work available to professional support staff at contemporary higher education institutions (HEIs) and how these expressions can be understood as strategies in their work. Academics are the given audience for this legitimacy work. Professional support staff are commonly described as having blurred boundaries in relation to academics and as actors in a third space. The empirical data comprise 19 interviews with three categories of professional support staff at three HEIs of a technical orientation in Sweden. A finding, in relation to the educational and work experience of these support staff, is that techniques and procedures are at their fingertips in legitimacy work. This also touches upon the more intangible aspects of the categories and structures of the support staff that resemble those of academics. However, one of the main conclusions of this study concerns the strength of the expressions of professional and personal legitimacy in their legitimacy work. This conclusion coincides with the view that they are strong actors in a third space, who use their freedom to form their own roles and the pick and choose among alternative means in their strategies to gain and maintain legitimacy.

本研究的目的是确定当代高等教育机构 (HEIs) 的专业支持人员可用的合法性工作表达方式，以及如何将这些表达方式理解为他们工作中的策略。学者是这项合法性工作的特定受众。专业支持人员通常被描述为与学者和第三空间中的参与者具有模糊的界限。实证数据包括对瑞典三所技术方向高等教育机构的三类专业支持人员的 19 次采访。与这些支持人员的教育和工作经验有关的发现是，技术和程序在合法性工作中触手可及。这也涉及到类似于学者的支持人员的类别和结构的更无形的方面。然而，这项研究的主要结论之一是关于其合法性工作中的专业合法性和个人合法性。这一结论与他们是第三空间中强有力的参与者的观点相吻合，他们利用自己的自由来形成自己的角色，并在其战略中选择替代手段来获得和维持合法性。