Stepping off the hamster wheel: how a limited perspective can obscure the essential
Unless you are a hamster, being in a hamster wheel is never a good thing (and I do sometimes wonder about hamsters, too). You run hard, but you are not getting anywhere. You run even harder, and you are still not getting anywhere. You realise it is pointless and stressful, but somehow stopping and jumping off doesn’t seem to be an option. The frantic activity is mind-numbing, but there is this overwhelming sense of having to keep going or worse things will happen. Yet it is not at all clear who exactly makes you run, and especially not why?
It pains me that, increasingly, I hear colleagues in universities describe their work lives as being in a hamster wheel, since the metaphor encapsulates very little agency, let alone satisfaction and joy. It is safe to assume that none of us signed up for anything remotely like that when we started our university careers. The majority of us are in higher education because we want to make a difference and we want to contribute to changing the world. And on the face of it, there is no better place for that than where we are. Being able to contribute to research, and thereby to finding novel solutions to truly important issues; helping students become the next generation of global citizens and leaders; contributing to society at large and being part of the development of the local community; there is hardly a more fulfilling way to spend your working days and your working life. Feeling that you contribute to something worthwhile and bigger than yourself is a hugely important factor in job satisfaction for every worker, as it certainly is for me. So why are so many colleagues in universities not satisfied?
“I don’t think we are asking ourselves frequently enough whether our goals are still the right ones.”
I believe there are problems with the way we are defining success and rewarding certain behaviours. And by “we” I mean vice-chancellors and presidents, and other people in leadership positions in universities, everywhere in the world. Somewhere in the last few decades, universities and their leaders have seemingly shifted from being driven by the sense of societal responsibility and impact on the local or global population, to being in a race for some bigger prize and being in competition with each other for that prize (arguably higher education policy has contributed to this, but that can’t be used as an excuse).
Perhaps university leaders don’t feel like a wheel-spinning hamster as much as some of our colleagues, but if we are not careful we can certainly at times feel like another type of rodent in a race. I don’t think we are asking ourselves frequently enough whether our goals are still the right ones.
If university leaders were to take stock, I think we would notice that, incrementally and gradually, we have become too focused on the prize of a top spot in the global rankings. These are primarily based on research production and reputation, and are increasingly known to be biased in favour of certain types of research and researchers. Also, a place high in the university rankings may draw talented students, but it does not measure the quality of education or societal impact very well. Perhaps the largest problem with rankings as a goal is that they make us more competitive, whereas we should be more collaborative.
“We can’t effectively change the world if we are so focused on being better than others.”
Our planet needs universities to work together in networks. None of the global challenges can be resolved by single institutions. We need to have a global outlook and work with other universities that may not be in a similar place in the rankings, but that have invaluable knowledge that can teach us different perspectives for research, education and societal impact. We can’t effectively change the world if we are so focused on being better than others. This external competitiveness also translates into our own organisational goals, which makes us less effective in what truly matters.
Students need to learn the value of group work, different perspectives and supporting each other, while being innovative and entering into uncharted territory as they learn. Academics need to work together in interdisciplinary teams to look at complicated, multifaceted problems from different angles of research and to be able to teach across disciplines in novel ways. Support staff need to collaborate and should feel that they, too, are part of the larger goals. And vice-chancellors and presidents need to work together in setting meaningful targets for themselves and their communities first, and let the rankings follow.
Now is a good time for moving towards a more collaborative university focused on higher goals, since many of our staff are increasingly vocal about being unhappy. In particular, the younger ones are feeling the lack of engagement with a higher purpose and the pressure, for instance, to produce a large number of publications and other research outcomes that do not necessarily make them feel fulfilled. Because we seem to be comparing so much, they often feel like they are in competition with each other for the next step in their careers and they are insecure about their abilities because someone else always seems to be more brilliant and productive. No wonder they feel disengaged.
“I want to support academics, students and staff who want to feel that sense of purpose, because I care about them as individuals and because I care about the world.”
I believe that only when my goals as a university leader match the goals of the people in my university community can we all thrive and achieve great things together. I also believe we still all want to change the world for the better. I strive for that to be my focus, not my university’s place in the rankings, while recognising that I, like everyone else, can be susceptible to the external pressure to seek prestige. And in common with the vast majority of my colleagues in higher education leadership positions, I want to support academics, students and staff who want to feel that sense of purpose, because I care about them as individuals and because I care about the world.
University leaders can redefine excellence and create career tracks that value internal and external community work, societal impact and teaching, as much as research funding and publishing. We can focus our own actions on working with fellow universities in the Global South on tough challenges that we all care about. We can share our knowledge and co-create teaching for as many global learners as possible. I know that would make me happy, and I am confident it would do likewise for the staff and students in my university.
As university leaders we now have to take a risk and worry much less about the race. The wellbeing of our staff and students, and ultimately that of the planet, demands focus on what really matters. We should be confident that eventually we will be just fine in the metrics and rankings. In fact, we could even help make the metrics more meaningful. However, if we are driven by them as a goal in and of itself, we will be less effective and we will lose too many talented, bright, caring people from our universities. They will leave because they are smart enough to know that it is impossible to change the world from within a hamster wheel.
