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Peter Woelert

@peterwoelert.bsky.social
271 followers 257 following 70 posts

Researching higher education policy, governance, and organisation & science policy - and administrative burden in universities. Based at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The one on Barry St? I had good experiences there too, helps that one can just walk in there and talk directly to a person.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I recently published a piece in Future Campus in which I argue that citations are moribund as an indicator of research performance: futurecampus.com.au/2026/10/12/w...
futurecampus.com.au
Why Citations Are Moribund
Its hard to see how citations can continue to be used as an indicator of research performance, Peter Woelert writes.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Maybe this time things will ultimately be different, but who knows? But is the very clear that the cracks in the publication system are widely showing. And that some funders/governments have caught on to this too. And I didn't even touch in my piece on the issue of AI-produced papers...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I wrote a piece for 'Future Campus' in which are argue that for academic publication to have a future, a radical departure from current productivity-focused models and incentives is needed: futurecampus.com.au/2026/03/10/t...
futurecampus.com.au
The Hidden Costs of Research Productivity
High levels of publication output are not necessarily a reason to celebrate. In order for them to continue to be a valued part of academic work, a radical departure from current productivity-focused m...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
I'm still confused by the last advice I got from an unisuper advisor. Also since someone I know who used to work as a Prof in accounting told me that I should definitely not follow that advice.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
There are no easy answers I feel. But maybe portability could be allowed for ECRs but restricted from a certain level of seniority onwards?
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Not sure, we had the opposite concern in Australia when we had ERA. Allowing portability incentivises unis to poach senior and very well established researchers rather than support and retain their early career academics.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I will have to check later properly, but is this about whether the publication record of a researcher moves along with them if they change universities? If so then I think not allowing this is very reasonable actually to recognise who funded these and to reduce incentives to game the system.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Yes, we weren't overly impressed. Some of the book chapters in our reference list had been turned into invented journal articles, that was the main issue we encountered. Plus some changes to book titles. The journal editors were really helpful although this stuff is beyond their control.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
It is really frustrating particularly when the original manuscript and the references were in good shape. Based upon my recent experiences, these days, the proofing provided by the big publishers tends to be not so much a 'value-add' but a source of additional work and headache.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
It could well have been the publisher's fault, but still. This happened to me not too long ago - when we got the proofs for a journal article back and the references had all sorts of fakes in it since the proofing team had used AI. I'm glad we spotted this in time, but it took ages to fix.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
More news coverage (in 'ResearchProfessional News') for our paper examining what academic staff in Australia are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden (to access the paper see the pinned post in my profile): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...
researchprofessionalnews.com
University efficiency drives may have opposite effect, study finds - Research Professional News
Teaching and research staff say reforms mean more red tape for them, Australian survey reports
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Reposted by Peter Woelert
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
The administrative burden in Australian universities is most keenly felt by teaching and research staff, according to...[the] study from the University of Melbourne’s faculty of education'. 2/2 Link to underpinning research: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey
Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
We just published the key findings arising from our admin burden survey conducted across Australian universities and committee meetings came out as one the biggest drains on time. Here's the entire paper is you're interested, may give you some additional ideas: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey
Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
I think one needs to distinguish between limiting the number of publications (which won't work) and moving toward restricting evaluations to a limited number of papers (per annum or in total). The latter strategy has a lot of merit IMO and has already been adopted by many research councils.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Today's edition of Future Campus includes a piece discussing our recently published research article (available open access) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities: futurecampus.com.au/2025/08/08/c...
futurecampus.com.au
Centralisation and System Upgrades Increase Academic Workload
Centralisation and system changes are increasing academic workloads according to a new survey.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
The Times Higher Education (THE) covers our just published research article (open access - see pinned post) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities. The THE piece can be accessed here (requires a subscription): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/automat...
timeshighereducation.com
Automated university systems ‘make administrative burden worse’
Risk-averse mindset, fervour for meetings and ‘time sink’ labour-saving ploys leave everybody overburdened, finds Melbourne study
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
3) Due to a lack of local staff support and administrative automation, academics generally feel they are not effectively supported if they are experiencing admin issues or problems. This is a key concern to them and is seen to result in frustration, delays, and additional admin workloads.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
2) Academics experience their teaching and research as administratively highly laborious activities (thus adding to their admin workload arising from generic admin responsibilities). Also, university meetings are a killer in terms of the demands they impose on time.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
We packed a lot into this article, but there are three core findings that are particularly interesting perhaps: 1) Academics largely associate the digital transformation and automation of uni administration with an increase, not a decrease, in their own administrative workload and burden.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Our article examining what academic staff are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden in Australian universities is now published online. It draws on survey responses from 350 staff from 37 Australian unis. Available open access at: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Administrative burden in Australian universities: Insights into dimensions and drivers from a nationwide survey
Abstract. Despite widespread concern about levels of administrative burden within universities, understanding of the associated dimensions and drivers rema
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Btw, I really wish we had better data on this in Australia - this is all self-reported (QUILT) data yes? I would be great to have more reliable large-scale studies using taxation data or the like, although there may be privacy issues rending this impossible.,
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
From what I hear IT may not be too different. I recently talked to a mate working in a senior role in IT and was told they are receiving a few hundred applications for entry level roles atm - and that the job market is very tough for graduates. It would be interesting to see proper data though.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Gwilym Croucher and I wrote a short piece for 'Future Campus' that adds to discussions of supply of and demand for PhD graduates in Australia and makes some specific policy recommendations: futurecampus.com.au/2025/07/07/h...
futurecampus.com.au
How Many PhD’s Does Australia Need?
Compared to many other countries, Australia trains a large number of PhDs per capita each year. Yet that has not stopped recent controversy over the future supply and demand for […]
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Reposted by Peter Woelert
Liudvika Leisyte @liulei14.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
📣 I am very excited about my new book "#University #Governance, #Management and the #Academic #Profession" is out! 🙌 Thank you so much to co-editors Prof. Monica Marquina and Prof. Glen Jones for great collaboration ! 📘 Check it out through Springer: 👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
link.springer.com
University Governance, Management and the Academic Profession
Explores issues and trends regarding the transformation of governance, Is written by scholars engaged in largest comparative studies of higher education
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Our paper analysing academic staff experiences of administrative burden at Australian universities recently got accepted for publication. It should be available online soon. This is quite a chunky paper focusing on what these staff view as the key dimensions and drivers of admin burden at work.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Oh the joy when your university has just released a new and mandatory travel portal which obviously isn't yet ready for users to use...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Just published (open access): In our article, we explore the key institutional forces that have led to casual academic employment being regarded as legitimate and normal element of university activity in Australia: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The rise of a “casualised” workforce: A conceptual account of the institutional forces legitimising contingent academic employment in Australia - Higher Education
Contingent academic employment has become a salient feature of many higher education systems over recent decades. At the same time, there remains limited understanding of how such employment has come ...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
The THE just published a niece piece discussing our recent article examining professional staff perspectives on administrative burden at Australian universities (subscription-based): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/endless...
timeshighereducation.com
Endless restructures ‘make campuses more inefficient, not less’
Surveyed professional staff blame constant restructuring for escalating administrative burden and deteriorating administrative efficiency
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
New publication (open access): Our article examines how professional staff at Australian universities see the administrative burdens they encounter at work, and what they regard as effective strategies to reduce such burdens (e.g., fewer restructures!): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Fewer restructures, more consultation, better recognition: key recommendations on tackling administrative burdens from Australian universities’ professional staff
In recent years, the issue of administrative burden in universities has received growing attention around the world. Although professional staff are central to the operation of universities, little...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Thank you - you beat me to it, good to see this published!
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
From hearsay, this is still pretty common practice I think. There also used to be a fair bit of poaching of DECRAs once they got funding, with a continuing role being the carrot. It may be a bit dependent on the field perhaps.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
But, back to your point re ERCs, one thing I never liked here is how the DECRA has become this 'win or lose all' thing - also because many universities promise people a continuing job on the condition that they get a DECRA. This puts an additional and immense pressure on applicants.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Btw, one additional challenge we have is that research funding in Australia is very concentrated in terms of funders. Basically, in some fields, there is only the ARC to go to. This really puts us at a disadvantage compared with other systems with a greater diversity in funding sources.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
I may be a bit of an outlier here but I really think that the overall point about the (problematic) concentration of large sums on few individuals in the ARC system is spot on. It's good that this is looked into. And, one side-effect has been that DECRAs have become extremely high-stakes...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
This is a fantastic opportunity. I had a great and productive time at the College last year and can highly recommend this fellowship scheme.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Interested in how and why turning universities into strategically managed organisations may make them more bureaucratic also? If you are then you may want to check out our recent paper. Now published as part of an issue: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Strategic Bureaucracy: The Convergence of Bureaucratic and Strategic Management Logics in the Organizational Restructuring of Universities - Minerva
Over recent decades, one can identify two key narratives associated with changes in university organization and governance. The first narrative focuses on the administrative consequences of an off-loa...
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Sorry to hear. Was this a higher ed focused application? From my experience, these can have a really hard time in the ARC system (and there only have been few funded over the years).
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
I always thought we were a bit of an outlier internationally with our national grant scheme being so strongly geared toward individual, 'big' fellowship schemes. In some ways, moving away from this approach toward a wider distribution of funds and opportunities may not be that bad a move really.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Does the idea of an 'initiate' scheme mean we may get a small national grants scheme back potentially? This could be a positive if managed well. This said, the upper funding limit for this scheme is pretty large (400k) - maybe a lower upper limit would be preferable (while funding more people).
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
This is really worth a read - provocative but spot on in many ways: blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Does authorship mean anything when academic papers are simply citable tokens?
The bibliometric infrastructure of citations has become an inescapable organising feature of academic life. Drawing on a range of evidence of the use and misuse of citations data, Stuart Macdonald …
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
I just learnt that the first article arising from our 'admin burden survey' conducted across Australian universities will be published soon. This article will look at the perspectives of universities' professional staff and their recommendations how to reduce admin burdens. I'll post more soon.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Looks like AI was used to re-format the references and made a mess.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
What's going on with major publishers and their proofing processes? I just received the proofs of an article and the list of references has been totally mangled. Second time this happened in a row now (same publisher btw). It's really hard to see any value-add in all of this (to the contrary).
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Not to mention actual learning outcomes.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Yeah, while student satisfaction is important, it has little to do with 'outcomes' (whatever these are, learning/career etc).
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Yeah admittedly, my N is rather small also! But yeah it seems the whole peer review & publication system is surely buckling a bit.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Out of interest, has anyone got the feeling that peer reviews have become more rushed/superficial lately? I had a few occasions lately where reports asked for addressing/adding things that were clearly discussed already in the submitted paper. Easy to point out in revisions, but still a bit funny.
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
To me that's a bit of a red flag to have that many paper actually..
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Peter Woelert @peterwoelert.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
What a joke!
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