by Monika Foster, Jill Dickinson and Debbie Rigby
The intensification of the research agenda across higher education (HE) has sharpened questions about who participates in research, on what terms, and with what support. This is perhaps most prominent in post-1992 institutions whose applied agenda historically called for professionals to join academia to enhance knowledge-practice links, but who are recently experiencing a shift in research intensification. Academics with practitioner experience, commonly referred to as pracademics (Volpe and Chandler, 1999), have the potential to occupy an increasingly significant, yet under-recognised position within this landscape. Entering academia from professional practice, they must simultaneously navigate unfamiliar research cultures, renegotiate their professional identities, and reconcile competing demands from the worlds of practice and scholarship (Huey and Mitchell, 2016).
In this blog, we focus on a British Academy/Leverhulme funded project (Leeds Beckett University, 2026) that explored how pracademics might renegotiate their identities as they operate within, and move between, the different working contexts presented by practice and academia (Johnson and Ellis, 2023; Huey and Mitchell, 2016). We reflect on the findings that highlight the gaps that exist within both the literature and university practices to support pracademics who work within post-1992 institutions in renegotiating their identities as they navigate the research culture within HE.
Understanding research: the practitioner-academic identity and research divide
The literature suggests that pracademics can complement a diverse faculty (Dickinson and Griffiths, 2023) by transgressing boundaries, serving as network brokers between academia and industry, and creating new channels to enhance cooperation and communication across the academic-practitioner divide (Powell et al, 2018; Panda, 2014). However, an emerging pracademic identity may take time to adjust as practitioners might simultaneously hold on to their practitioner identities whilst developing new skills and connections in academia. Institutions and external partners that achieve higher levels of practitioner-academic collaboration are more likely to be more successful (Hughes et al, 2011; Posner, 2009). Organisations with the strongest academic networks and research capacities are likely to produce wider social, community and policy impacts as well as the benefits for business (Nicolaou and Birley, 2003; Siegel et al, 2007).
Against this backdrop, we sought to explore the following three questions: What do pracademics understand by the phrase ‘research within HE’? To what extent do pracademics perceive themselves as able to engage in, and navigate, the research within HE? And What other factors do pracademics perceive as either supporting or inhibiting their potential to contribute to the research within HE?
Practitioner-academic identity and research culture
We have purposively sampled institutions that are likely to employ a significant number of pracademics and that are developing their research agenda alongside their teaching offer. Post-1992 institutions (granted university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992) have traditionally recruited more pracademics (Obembe, 2023) and are increasingly focused on strengthening their research alongside their teaching provision (Guthrie and Neumann, 2007). Through an online survey completed by forty-five pracademics working in post-1992 universities, we intended to build an initial picture of pracademics’ experiences by exploring understandings of research culture, confidence in engaging in research, and professional identity, which helped identify key issues for further exploration.
The survey results highlighted no single understanding or definition of what research culture meant and participants consistently described it as much more than simply undertaking research. Factors perceived to support engagement with research culture included: supportive colleagues, mentoring, collaboration, opportunities for informal knowledge exchange and access to research development opportunities. In contrast, competing workload demands, limited time, unclear pathways into research, unfamiliar academic processes, and a lack of confidence seem to inhibit engagement.
Based on the survey outcomes, we explored further pracademics’ professional identity, how they navigate research culture, what they value in research, and how they experience the changing expectations of higher education in focus groups. Focus groups’ participants were from a range of disciplines including education, business, law, social work and policy. The focus group discussions were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006), and four interconnected themes emerged that capture pracademics’ journey and transition, starting with their professional identities, making sense of research culture, practitioners’ values, and how these values and experiences sit within a changing higher education landscape.
Theme 1: “It’s the synergy between the two”. Constructing a pracademic identity
Who am I becoming as a pracademic? Across the focus groups, we noted a recurring theme of professional identities, bringing established professional knowledge, values and experience into HE, drawing upon different aspects of themselves depending on the context. For many, their practitioner and academic identities were not experienced as separate or competing, but as closely connected. This is captured well in the words of one of the focus groups participants: “it’s the synergy between the two that makes it really interesting”, explaining that “sometimes it’s the practice that’s doing the heavy lifting and sometimes it’s the academic bit that’s doing the heavy lifting.”
Theme 2: “Learning the rules of a different game”. Navigating the hidden cultures of higher education
How do I learn to navigate the academic world? Although the research participants entered HE with substantial professional expertise, many reported feeling unexpectedly like novices when trying to grasp research culture. Research culture was described differently across the focus groups. Some participants described it as the environment in which research happens, whilst others reflected on arriving in HE with little understanding of where to begin “a little bit daunting on arrival”.These discussions suggest that engaging with research culture involves much more than learning research skills; it involves learning the language, expectations and culture of HE itself.
Theme 3: “Working with people rather than on people”. Practitioner values shaping research
What values do pracademics bring? Participants described research through the values they brought with them from professional practice. Research was described as most valuable when it remained connected to the communities and professions it sought to serve. Across the focus groups, participants consistently described their practitioner experience as shaping not only the research they wanted to undertake, but also how they understood impact. Research was valued for its ability to improve practice, support students and contribute to professional communities, research is not as an activity separate from practice, but as an extension of it.
Theme 4: When pracademic values meet institutional realities. Negotiating value within contemporary HE
What happens when those values encounter the realities of contemporary higher education? Whilst there was a strong commitment to research across the focus groups, participants also described becoming increasingly aware of what appeared to be recognised, rewarded and made visible within contemporary universities. Research outputs, funding applications and academic progression were often interpreted as indicators of what institutions value. A recurring thread throughout these discussions was participants’ growing awareness that research culture is changing, has research culture become “an empty signifier for ‘how many articles are you getting published in four-star journals?'”, whilst also asking where professional expertise, leadership and knowledge exchange fitted within this changing landscape.
Navigating research culture in a changing HE landscape
Overall, our study has shone a light on how pracademics navigate research culture within a changing HE landscape. Beyond simply identifying barriers to engagement, we explored how they establish professional identities and shape participants’ understandings of meaningful research, academic identity and the changing expectations of contemporary universities. The findings from the project suggest that these pracademics do not experience becoming academics as leaving their practitioner identities behind. They consistently describe building upon their professional knowledge, skills and values. Their practitioner identities remain central to how they understand themselves and the contribution they make within HE.
It is apparent that pracademics move between practitioner and academic perspectives depending on the context in which they are working. This flexibility strengthens their teaching, shapes the research questions they ask, and enables them to connect with students, colleagues and professional communities reflecting both worlds. Given the richness of contributions that pracademics can make in research and practice in universities, we hope that these findings might inform a broad range of stakeholders, including: policymakers, HE-related charities, senior university leadership, human resources and organisational development, research development, those who self-identify as pracademics, and those who have taken more traditional career paths.
Monika Foster is Professor of Business Education and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor International and Educational Partnerships at Northumbria University, National Teaching Fellow and PFHEA, her research interests include leadership and change management, cross-cultural management and social capital development.
Jill Dickinson is Professor of Law and Professional Development at Leeds Law School, Leeds Beckett University, PFHEA, an Executive Coach (L7) and Solicitor (non-practising), and her research draws on creative methods to explore professional development and place-making.
Debbie Rigby is a PhD researcher at Leeds Beckett University and a former secondary school science teacher, Assistant Headteacher and teacher educator with a particular interest in research culture and professional identity in higher education.
