Being a professor in the 21st century university: Pressured professionalism in the UK academy

Drawing upon research that yielded data from over 1,200 UK-based professors, this paper illustrates how, by trying to meet expectations, their ‘demanded’ professionalism became pressured professionalism as these academics navigated ways to enact academic leadership. Unclearly defined in the UK context, academic leadership was often interpreted as needing to be all things to all people, and pressure to enact it spawned performance angst as professors were impeded in trying to achieve what they perceived as their ideal job situations. Yet it is suggested that the demands and pressures associated with today’s neoliberal university have dogged academe for centuries.