Reflections on the review: Expertise and the emerging scholar

Abstract

Changes to higher education in the past twenty years have been fuelled by the conviction that high performance in research is crucial to securing national advantage in the global arena. within a rhetoric of excellence, Calhoun (2006: 9) suggests this has come to be inextricably linked to "the pursuit of recognition and especially the positional good of being seen to be better than others". Quality assurance is no longer about maintaining quality and standards across institutions, but rather seeks to demonstrate difference that reflects the competitive edge of some over others (Brennan and Singh, 2011). Academic staff members are expected to be increasingly visible as international, cross-institutional, inter- and intra-faculty researchers and networkers, entrepreneurial in gaining selective research funding, and obliged to aid their institution in securing a favourable ranking with the best of the world class universities (Deem, 2010).