Collegiality in the complex ecosystem of research in academia: an analysis of a research-intensive university in the UK

Recent work by researchers, higher education institutions and research funders highlights how current research culture can be damaging to individual experience, and the wider research endeavour, potentially constraining capacity to create useful knowledge that addresses key problems. Further, the erosion of academic values and freedoms has emerged as a key concern for researchers working within the UK and beyond. Many institutions are considering how they can support a positive research context where members feel their contributions are respected and where transparent processes support the development of trustworthy knowledge. This article addresses the question of how collegiality is experienced and implicated in the complex and interconnected issues characterising the contemporary research ecosystem. To explore this area, this article has three aims, (i) to define and review the concept of collegiality as part of research culture, (ii) consider how it is currently understood and experienced by members of a specific research community, (iii) consider the future potential for collegiality to contribute positively to researchers’ experience of their research culture. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from a Research Culture Survey we find that the historical understanding of collegiality no longer reflects its contemporary embodiment, partly due to the dual phenomena of increased neoliberal managerialism and increased staff diversity within higher education, and the attendant shift in how ‘collegial’ work is understood and experienced. We discuss how universities could nonetheless benefit from a renewed actualisation of collegiality within research culture.