Researcher measured: Towards a measurement-driven academia

In many countries, higher education is financed mainly through state grants. Traditionally, universities have autonomous status and the right to carry out their self-chosen policy. The autonomy and independence of universities have formed the cornerstone of their existence. In recent years there is a rising interest in monitoring the effectiveness of academic institutions. On the one hand, this interest comes from the external desire to control the efficient use of financing and, on the other hand, from the internal desire of the university administration to direct their scant financing in a productive way. In this model, university funding is seen as an investment to implement both government and university strategies. The significance of free external financing has increased simultaneously, but even this funding is based on heavy competition between institutions. To summarize, a transition towards the entrepreneurship model has also begun in universities. Alongside academic freedom, a culture of the evaluation and measurement of quality has been created; in this process, academic values may be consigned to the background. The paper addresses the changes in universities caused by the measurement directed culture. Digitalization supports this process by providing automated tools for collecting data and using it for measurement. The handling of the topic is partially general, and partially draws on the experiences (context) of the authors. The transition towards openness and networked activities has begun. It remains to be seen what will happen to traditional academic values.