This volume offers a timely and internationally grounded exploration of one of the defining challenges facing higher education today: the growing influence of performance regimes on academic work, institutional governance, and professional identities. As higher education institutions worldwide are increasingly assessed through publication metrics, citation indicators, teaching evaluations, rankings, and impact measures, questions arise about what academic performance truly means, how it should be evaluated and how it affects the academic work, institutional governance, and broader societal engagement.

Drawing on empirical data from the international APIKS (Academic Profession in the Knowledge-based Society) study, the volume offers comparative insights into how performance expectations shape academic careers, influence research and teaching priorities, and affect institutional strategies in different national and cultural contexts.

Moving beyond a narrow focus on institutional outputs, the book places the academic profession at the center of analysis. It explores the tensions between research productivity and teaching quality, the increasing importance of international collaboration, the growing recognition of knowledge and technology transfer, and the impact of managerial and accountability practices on academic autonomy and job satisfaction. Particular attention is paid to the unintended consequences of performance-based systems, including administrative burden, intensified competition, and changing professional norms.

At a time when international initiatives such as CoARA, DORA, and the Leiden Manifesto are calling for more responsible and holistic approaches to research assessment, this volume offers a nuanced and evidence-based contribution to ongoing debates about the future of academic evaluation. Through a rich combination of comparative perspectives and empirical analyses, it challenges simplistic understandings of performance and advocates for more equitable, context-sensitive, and mission-aligned approaches to assessing academic work and offers valuable perspectives for scholars, policymakers, and higher education leaders seeking to balance accountability with academic autonomy and mission-driven work.

Corinna Geppert is the Deputy Head of the Department for Higher Education Research and Head of the Center for Higher Education Development and Innovation at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. Her research interests include professionalization of academic staff members, academic careers, equity and innovation in higher education, learning in higher education, educational transitions, conditions of successful educational trajectories, empirical mixed-methods research and longitudinal research, as well as educational policymaking.

Attila Pausits is Full Professor of Higher Education Research and Higher Education Development and Head of the Department of Higher Education Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria. He also serves as the spokesperson for the Austrian Higher Education Research Network. His research explores the dynamics and development of higher education institutions, with a particular emphasis on organisational change, the evolving role of the academic profession, the third mission of universities, academic continuing education, and the use of institutional research to support evidence-informed decision-making.

Robin Jung-Cheng Chen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Education at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. Internationally recognized, Professor Chen served as a consultant for the UNESCO Teacher Policy 2030 Task Force, showcasing his exceptional ability to expand his professional network within Taiwan’s academic circles and beyond. His research interests span a diverse range of topics, including the academic profession , education leadership and training, as well as rural and alternative education.

Sophia Shi-Huei Ho is Professor and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ming Chuan University, Taiwan. She was invited as the Director of the Research Center for Curriculum and Instruction at the National Academy for Educational Research (NAER) (Taiwan) and as a visiting researcher at the Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education, Hokkaido University, Japan. She is the Deputy CEO of the Accreditation of Chinese Collegiate School of Business (ACCSB) Center, Consultant of the Taiwan Association for Institutional Research (TAIR), the Secretariat Committee Member (SEC) of the South East Asian Association for Institutional Research (SEAAIR), and the delegate of the Task Force on Action Plan of APEC Education Strategy of Chinese Taipei. Her research focuses on higher education, academic profession, institutional governance, internationalization, and university president leadership.

Olivier Bégin-Caouette Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, at the Université de Montréal, Canada. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Comparative and International Higher Education (CRC-ESCI). He is the co-founder and scientific director of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research on Higher Education (LIRES), and an associate member of the Interuniversity Research Center on Science and Technology (CIRST). His research focuses on the interactions between higher education systems and their political, economic, social and cultural contexts, as well as on academic research production, internationalization, and the academic profession.