In my time in academia (~20 years) I have seen the demands and competition increase quite significantly, however talking to older researchers the this really started in the 90s the demands to demonstrate measurable outcomes increased dramatically and funding moved to be primarily through competitive grants (compared to significant base funding for researchers previously). The issue is that while previously it was common for academics to have funding for 1-2 PhD students to look into new research areas, now many researchers are required to bring in competitive grants for even covering part of their salary.

What that means is that researchers become much more risk averse, and and stay in their research area even if they believe it is not the most interesting/imapactfull. You just can't afford to not publish for several years, to e.g. investigate a novel research direction, because without the publications it becomes much much harder to secure funding in the future.

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throwawayqqq11 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

So its economic pressure again, i assume put on academic institutions that in turn pass it through as lower funding/wages.

Its important to note that somehow we see the erosion of families, infractures and institutions everywhere but we never talk about the giant f'ing elephant in the room.

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kaladin-jasnah 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This is interesting. Is there a reason why this started happening in the 90s?

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japanuspus 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

I think a lot of it is covered under "New Public Management" [0], which was maybe a result of the financialization happening in the 80's [1].

And I completely GP, having been in or in contact with academic research since the late 90's, there has been a very strong shift from a culture where the faculty had means for independent research, and were trusted to find their own direction, to the system we have today where a research project has much tighter overlook and reporting than most corporate projects.

A professor with a 4-5 person group will typically need two staggered pipelines of 4-5year funding projects to run risk free. In the EU it is virtually impossible to get funding for projects that do not involve multiple countries, so you need to set up and nurture partnerships for each project. Coordination the application process for these consortia is a major hassle and often outsourced at a rate of 50kEUR + win bonus. And you of course need to run multiple applications to make sure to get anything. When I talked to mentors about joining academia around 2010, the most common response was "don't".

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_public_management [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization

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nradov 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The postwar growth in tertiary education came to an end. Due to demographic shifts the number of students matriculating stopped increasing. As long as the sector was generally growing there were a decent number of opportunities for those who really wanted a career in academia. But when the growth stopped it became a zero-sum game, intensifying competition between colleagues. Win at any cost.

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thallium205 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because the supply of academics have outpaced demand.

	▲	jackyinger 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I’d say that it is precisely because of superficial demand by bureaucracy that academic output has become superficial. The demand for novel knowledge is always high. It is the supply that is short. That’s why we hang around on HN hoping for something novel of true interest. You get a good find every once in a long while.

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adgjlsfhk1 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

education funding cuts

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kaonwarb 3 days ago | parent [-]

How does that square with the cost of education significantly outpacing inflation?

	▲	chowells 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Funding cuts. Like from the state and federal levels. This resulted in costs to students increasing while also forcing researchers to generate income. This is the natural result of treating college like a business. They raise costs on every side.
	▲	Y_Y 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Highly specialised education doesn't scale well. Computers and factories keep getting more efficient, but a professor can only handle so many students still. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect
	▲	aaviator42 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		The money doesn't go to the researchers.
	▲	grandinj 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Unfunded pension and health care