The Academic Community as a Competitive System
Postgraduates, Ph.D.s and Feminist Perspectives
The article aims to explore how competition between scholars for positions and grants is experienced in higher education. In what ways are different experiences connected with the positional conditions of individuals? How are the scholars’ judgments affected by the competitive academic system?
Whereas well-established scholars and officials on top positions in higher education often believe that excellence in research requires a competitive environment, interviews with postgraduate students and newly appointed Ph.D.s demonstrate a general discontent about competition. On the contrary, they often assert that rivalry obstructs creativity and impairs relations among colleagues. Nevertheless, internalization of the dominant ideology of competition seems to increase when scholars gain the academy’s recognition through successful moves and, thus, get more confident of themselves as winners. Correspondingly, self-confidence and motivation, as well as the propensity to identify oneself with academic norms and values, tend to be affected by the degree of career fortune.
The article argues that one must refute generally held notions of competition as a neutral means of distinguishing the best from the rest. Competition itself also tends to affect aspiring individuals in various ways and, thus, it determines the chances of success. This is especially the case at university departments with many postgraduate students without employment, where only a select group are really integrated in the scholarly community and many others, because of the lack of economic support, are denied status as capable scholars. It is also argued that positional interests can explain the varying propensity to advocate competition and that the belief in the necessity of incentives tends to increase the more of these one manages to gain.
