Instrumentalisation of time as a barrier to academic freedom for research: The fixed-term faculty experience in UK universities

The UK boasts the world’s second strongest higher education (HE) system. Unlike most other HE systems globally, employment in UKHE is characterised by the absence of tenure and the preponderance of fixed-term contracts, which can significantly impact working conditions and the exercise of academic freedom. Yet, the relationship between fixed-term employment and academic freedom remains empirically under-researched. This study explores the ways in which academic freedom for research is shaped and constrained by UKHE organisational practices. Drawing from the open text data gathered from 195 fixed-term respondents in a survey distributed to University and College Union (UCU) members that overall gathered 2028 responses, the article provides a novel explanatory lens with which to understand how university organisational practices can stymie academic freedom for research. Through application of the concept of constitutive effects to the ways in which universities instrumentalise time as a managerial tool, the paper identifies three barriers to academic freedom for research that institutions create for scholars employed fixed-term, conceptualised here as (i) employers not permitting faculty time for research at the contractual level ( no time permitted ); (ii) employers timing scholars out from research through workloading practices ( timed out ); and (iii) employers wasting faculty time with institutionally mandated research-adjacent tasks (time wasted ). Through this conceptualisation, the article illuminates how UK university organisational practices can undermine academic freedom for research for those employed on a time-limited contractual arrangement, and highlights the risks to academic freedom in countries that are adopting a UK-style model.