Research performance management has grown in prominence as systems of higher education become more closely aligned with national economic objectives in the context of economic and cultural globalisation, as well as the emergence of international comparisons of higher education performance.  Higher education systems are caught between two dynamic processes of economic value and status value (Marginson,2016). Demands that higher education produce discernible economic benefits for national economies (economic value), and high university rankings and publication metrics in global competitions (status value), are translated into models of governance and funding priorities (systemic level); performance management, recruitment and staff progression systems (institutional level); and individual strategies to negotiate between personal and institutional objectives and work-life balance (subjective level).  On the one hand, these processes appear to transform scholarly activity itself, placing research productivity as the primary expectation at the institutional level, but also on the level of individual career assessment. In these contexts, productivity is understood typically as numerically measured publishing performance of institutional units and individual academics, and measurements are based on such evidence as journal impact, individual citation indices, national 'scoring' systems, leading to the development of various systems of audit and quality review at national levels (Dobbins, 2015; Froumin & Smolentseva 2014; Kwiek, 2014; Magalhães et. al., 2013; Perotti, 2007; Stamelos & Kavasakalis, 2017). On the other hand, these processes reproduce academic hierarchies, since knowledge production is largely concentrated in particular geo-political locations, mostly the United Kingdom and the United States (Hazelkorn, 2015; Rauhvargers, 2013).  This ignores the substantial differences of resource and established reputational capital between higher education systems and higher education institutions (HEIs), for instance between the UK and Central and Eastern European transition states and southern Europe. 

The majority of critiques of research performance management systems and the rankings/metrics nexus emanate from the powerful core regions of global higher education.   Yet, these processes are likely to differentially impact on academic work across different regions of Europe and categories of HEI.  The challenge explored in this Panel Discussion is to assess how these processes structure academic practice, how they impact on academic identity, and on the historically formed modes of knowledge production and dissemination in the non-core regions of Europe. 

The Round Table will examine three core issues:

• Linguistic impact, as a consequence of the prioritisation of publishing in international high impact academic journals, which normally translates as publishing in English, (Duszak and Lewkowicz, 2008; Medgyes and Kaplan 1992; Rauhvargers, 2013);
• Disciplinary impact in terms of how practices that define particular disciplines may be transformed due to the pressure to produce particular kinds of knowledge and research outputs (Lee et. al., 2013; RIA, 2011, Sarakinioti et al, 2011);
• Impact on the kinds of knowledge produced by research activity in the Social Sciences and Humanities through research performance management practices. This refers to the way certain forms of knowledge may be marginalised, such as indigenous concepts that are not easily translated into English idioms without a fundamental loss of meaning; or knowledge that is seen as not amenable to market application (Linkova, 2014; Wouters et. al., 2015)

Panel participants are drawn from non-core regions of Europe (and a participant from the global south) providing a unique perspective on the impact and critical questions raised by national and global systems of research performativity; giving voice to those often ignored in dominant academic and policy debates.

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