Study title

This collection consists of survey answers collected from British higher education staff (CGHE3.2 Project) about their career trajectories, job satisfaction as well as current and future aspirations. Some 600+ valid answers have been collected in 2019 in five British higher education institutions. All respondents are in academic functions (teaching and research, teaching only or research only). The survey is a novel inquiry about previous experiences, current working conditions and future aspirations.

This longitudinal project involved eight universities in the four UK nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; five in England and one in each of the other three countries. It comprised a longitudinal qualitative phase (2017 and 2019), and a quantitative phase (2017/2018). The latter was carried out by means of an academic staff survey across 5 of the 8 participating institutions in the qualitative component of the study. The researchers undertook at least eight in-depth interviews with academic staff at different levels of seniority and across different disciplines in each case institution – a total of 69 in-depth interviews in 2017/18 (labelled 2017). The second stage in 2019/20 (labelled 2019) involved 41 interviews. The project investigated the implications of a diversifying workforce in British higher education, in relation to changing roles and career pathways, and a blurring of boundaries not only between disciplines, but also between academic work and activities that academic staff may undertake outside the university.