The fierce world of academia: an examination of the competitive environment which surrounds academia through the lens of academic capitalist and academic self-governance

Universities within the Netherlands try to be valuable for society. This is done through a variety of means, one being the publishing of academic research. Yet many structural, cultural, personal and economic factors play a role in de process that is research. Within this thesis I have looked at the implicit knowledge of academic research. To do this I have used two concepts from the literature: Academic capitalism and academic self-governance. Through the usage of these concepts, I have conducted semi-structured interviews with academics who are currently involved with research activities within the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). These participants range from PHD candidates to full professors. Through the interviews I found that the high level of competition within academia has the following negative consequences: 1) competition discourages cooperation between academics working on the same topics, 2) research topics with existing infrastructures and interested groups are prioritized, 3) It creates a work and reward system which undervalues any type of facilitating, supporting or teaching activities researchers do and, 4) academics experience large amounts of anxiety and stress due to the high amount of competition. Issues such as publishing, funding and the networks of academics are also discussed. Within the thesis some points are further elaborated on such as the mental health of academics, the function of transdisciplinary work, the role of non-academics in research and conflicts of interest within commercial funding. The study concludes that although science contributes much towards society, the current system surrounding academia is not beneficial towards the development of these contributions.