It is not seen, nor is it much valued, but is essential for excellence in research and the working environment. Bri Gauger looks at how Chalmers handles what is called ‘academic citizenship’. An area that women often take most of the responsibility for – and are thus the most affected by its drawbacks.
“Chalmers needs to reward academic citizenship more obviously,” she says.
Research, teaching, and utilisation. Three obvious areas of competence within academia that are clearly defined and rewarded in recruitment and promotion. But there are also other academic tasks that are neither particularly visible nor rewarded – despite the fact that they create the foundation for good research and teaching.
“Academic citizenship can involve taking on supervision and mentoring tasks, taking responsibility for the working environment and supporting colleagues, participating in development and strategy work, or getting involved in workshops on gender equality and diversity. In other words, different types of involvement and activities that are crucial for a good academic environment, but that take time away from other more highly valued activities such as publishing or successful project funding applications.
This is what Bri Gauger has concluded. She is a post-doc at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering who has been looking into academic citizenship at Chalmers in recent years, starting out from her own department. With support from the gender equality initiative Genie, she has mapped out what activities fall into this area, and what other activities have to give way for them. She has also initiated a strategy for how work related to academic citizenship can be highlighted more and attributed higher value.
Unequal distribution of efforts
Bri Gauger sees many reasons why we need to know more about academic citizenship. She stresses that it is problematic that some people invest far more time than others in this type of work, without being rewarded for it.
“Research shows that women and minority groups tend to spend more time on undervalued tasks, especially tasks related to collegiality and emotional work. And when time is taken from other activities needed to advance in academia, those who are in the early stages of their careers pay the highest price. Even though Chalmers says that these are the kinds of employees that the University really wants to attract and retain. Therefore, it is important to highlight and raise awareness about this area, and not least to value this work more highly. “It’s also a challenge to find a good way to measure these efforts,” she says.
Since 2021, academic citizenship has been included as one of the assessment criteria in Chalmers’ Appointment regulation for teaching and research faculty. This is positive, according to Bri Gauger, but she also points out that it is just a first step.
“A sentence in the Appointment regulation isn’t going to make a lot of difference if Chalmers doesn’t demonstrate that this criterion really matters. And for that, structural and cultural changes are required. There is now an opportunity to be proactive, to ameliorate the downsides we see today and work for academic citizenship to be rewarded. Chalmers has a chance to really discuss what excellence is, and make it clear that it is about more than star researchers and prestigious publications, and that no efforts in this area are wholly individual,” she says.
Strategy to increase awareness
Her study of Architecture and Civil Engineering clearly showed that the down-prioritisations required to spend time on academic citizenship are detrimental to the employee’s career development. A feeling of frustration also emerged among the employees there concerning how these efforts are rewarded. According to Chalmers’ Appointment regulation, all employees have an obligation to contribute to good collegiality, but many of her department’s employees feel that those who put in more than the minimum effort are not rewarded for this, while those who put in no effort at all for collegiality suffer no consequences.
Bri Gauger hopes that the strategy she has started, called “Academic citizenship recognition strategy”, will contribute to change in this area.
“Awareness is the first step. All employees must understand what academic citizenship is, and see that it matters. And then a pat on the back is not going to be enough. These efforts must be clearly valued in recruitments and promotions,” she says.
She stresses the need to train leaders and the departments’ research committees to highlight and communicate efforts related to academic citizenship.
“People in leadership positions need to develop these types of qualities among their employees; this is an important task that they have,” she says.
Key to attracting more people to Chalmers
The strategy will be implemented in spring 2024 and become part of Architecture and Civil Engineering’s operational plan. The next step is to expand the study to two other departments at Chalmers – to investigate similarities and differences and to be able to draw more general conclusions. Bri Gauger is also going to increase cooperation with Chalmers’ central organisation in order to identify ways that the University can become better at making academic citizenship more visible and more valued.
“If it’s clear that Chalmers both sees and values work that relates to academic citizenship, it will have great significance for job satisfaction, the working environment and research results. It’s key to attracting people, for them to want to come here to Chalmers – but also want to stay,” she says.
What Chalmers’ Appointment regulation says about academic citizenship
Academic citizenship is divided into three areas. Here are some examples of qualifications:
Collegiality, the base level for a good working environment
- Supporting colleagues with feedback on applications and manuscripts and in education.
- Sharing teaching materials that one has produced.
- Holding collegial conversations, taking personal responsibility for the academic environment.
- Showing interest in and promoting equality, openness and diversity.
Tasks in academia within and outside one’s home university
- Participating in working groups for the University’s development or committees such as the Faculty Senate, ethics committees or nomination committees.
- Participating in review and assessment tasks in research, or working as a reviewer for journals.
Academic leadership
- Management and service positions, such as Assistant Head of Department, Head of Unit, or Head of Programme, or leading working groups and committees.
- Reviewing and assessing degree or research programmes.
- Part-time fixed-term teacher, Architectural Theory and Method, Architecture and Civil Engineering