Early Career Researchers as Stakeholders in University Decision‐Making in Europe: Comparative Perspectives

Liudvika Leišytė, Ivana Načinović Braje, Shulamit Almog, Sultan Baysan, Teresa Carvalho, Dovilė Daunoraitė, Sara Diogo, Panourgias Papaioannou, Anna Farmaki, Shlomit Feldman, Rakibe Külcür, Inga Matijošytė, Sandra Pralgauskaitė, Vanya Rangelova and Dalia Šatkovskienė
Additional contact information
Liudvika Leišytė: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Ivana Načinović Braje: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Shulamit Almog: Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel
Sultan Baysan: Department of Social Studies Education, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye
Teresa Carvalho: University of Aveiro, Portugal / CIPES, Portugal
Dovilė Daunoraitė: Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Sara Diogo: University of Aveiro, Portugal / CIPES, Portugal
Panourgias Papaioannou: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Anna Farmaki: Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Shlomit Feldman: Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel
Rakibe Külcür: University College London, UK
Inga Matijošytė: Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Sandra Pralgauskaitė: Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Vanya Rangelova: Department of Epidemiology and Disaster Medicine, Medical University Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Dalia Šatkovskienė: Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: The voices of academics have traditionally been strong in university decision‐making bodies, where they participated in the shared governance of the university. It has been customary for senior academics to be represented in managing bodies and to exercise control over the key areas of strategy, finance, quality assurance, study programs, and/or human resources. With the new public management reforms that have swept through higher education (HE) systems, the power of academics has been reduced, while managerial guidance has increased, alongside the fostering of universities’ institutional autonomy. At the same time, the power of other stakeholders, such as students or industry representatives, has also been increasing as part and parcel of the governance reforms, albeit to different degrees and at different paces across various HE systems. In this context, this article seeks to examine the role that early career researchers (ECRs) play in university decision‐making bodies across different countries as internal stakeholders. The research is based on seven case studies from seven European and East Mediterranean countries drawing on documentary data and 55 semi‐structured interviews with ECRs and 14 managers, carried out in 2023–2024. Following stakeholder categories distinguished on the basis of their legitimacy, urgency, and power, this article investigates the extent to which ECRs perceive their voices to be heard. The findings show variance between the case studies regarding formal representation, with most universities in the study having limited representation of ECRs in university and faculty/school‐level decision‐making bodies. The voices of ECRs, however, are heard in informal ways.

Keywords: decision‐making; early career researchers; power; representation; stakeholders; university governance; university; voice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9683 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9683

DOI: 10.17645/si.9683

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().