Navigating from industry to higher education: Practitioner transitions to academic life

Abstract

In this paper, we entwine sympathetic concepts of liminality and workplace identity to capture processual, agential and emotional elements of transition for established professionals from other sectors taking up academic careers in a digitised UK business school. We undertake interpretative analysis of explicit and latent responses through three core themes exploring processes of transition, agencies of transition and emotions of transition through anonymised interviews conducted with 15 participants coming in from a variety of industrial and service roles. With a rationale of better understanding barriers and ambiguities experienced during times of transition, the paper considers perceptions of ambiguity and flux experienced by those undertaking second careers in the context of marketised higher education, arguing that coming in from a profession is complex and unsettling. The paper argues for greater institutional focus on improving perceptions of belonging, valorisation and recognition for those negotiating the ritual and contested space of transition, particularly in light of increasing collaboration between academia and practice and growing student numbers in this space. It concludes that in the light of continued policy decisions embracing rapid growth in apprenticeship and other practice-based degree programmes, university managers need active strategies to retain and develop those from industry and other professional backgrounds.