Movers and Shakers: Do Academics Control Their Own Work?

This chapter deals with stakeholders and academics as stakeholders. We examine responses to several questions from the EUROAC/CAP survey and seek to establish whether or not European responding nations fit into any obvious blocs. Academics’ perceptions of their influence at various levels within their institutions have been analysed against attitudes to management and governance. Both of these questions are compared and contrasted with responses to perceptions about which groups exert influence and the respective influence of internal and external stakeholder groups. In particular, the role of academics themselves and the influence they have are examined. Conclusions based on the analysis show that members of the academic staff themselves are major internal stakeholders and control many elements of their own destinies. However, there are considerable variations between the 12 participating European countries but less variation between senior and junior academics within each country. External stakeholders are active more in issues related to research than to teaching, as they have very little influence in academic core. The key to strengthening academic freedom is internal stakeholders’ social, reputational and social participatory role at the department and faculty levels.