"We must all take responsibility for the academic housekeeping"

Committee work, participation in recruitment processes, and mentoring activities—these are just some of the non-credit-bearing tasks encapsulated under the term ‘academic citizenship’, which must be addressed in the day-to-day operations of academia. Unlike the traditional core tasks of education and research, these activities share a common characteristic: They neither enhance one's CV, increase one’s chances when applying for external funding, nor provide a pathway for career advancement.

“We live in a world where documentation and merit are central. This is also true in academia, where the number of publications and lectures holds significant weight. However, I must admit I am generally critical of whether we adequately account for the totality of meaningful work when we measure contributions in this way,” says Helle Terkildsen Maindal.

Are the same employees always taking on or given these tasks?

Helle Terkildsen Maindal emphasises the need to examine how we can assign greater status to these essential academic tasks and whether they should be distributed across a broader range of personnel. This is especially important given evidence suggesting systematic differences in who predominantly undertakes them.

“Researchers have explored how men and women in academia balance collective versus individual interests. Their findings show that men are more successful in pursuing individual interests, while women are more likely to take on relational work and fulfill organisational role expectations,” she explains.

“This disparity is not acceptable. We know from statistics that fewer women than men in academia reach professorships. While there are many possible reasons for this, we need to address the structural issues contributing to the imbalance. If the lack of merit associated with shared academic tasks is a factor, then we must make these contributions more prestigious and recognise their value to the academic community. We need to explore how to distribute these tasks more equitably and ensure they count toward merit,” says Helle Terkildsen Maindal.

We must assign status, value, and visibility to these tasks

Helle Terkildsen Maindal recognises the imbalance in task distribution, often with women disproportionately handling tasks that foster cohesion within the academic environment, culture, and organisation at the departmental, faculty, and university levels.

And she is not alone trying to tackle this imbalance. At the department of Dentistry and Oral Health, Head of department Siri Beier Jensen has also focused on academic citizenship.

"We conducted an inclusion survey at the department earlier this year, and it showed, among other things, that also at our department it is predominantly female employees who sit on councils, boards and committees – and not least handle tasks related to education, for example development tasks and course responsibility," says department head Siri Beier Jensen from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health and continues: "I suspected or worried that some of the female researchers had a larger workload under the auspices of academic citizenship even before we conducted the study. But I didn't know for sure. I do now, and that makes it easier for me to work on creating equal opportunities for all our employees.

Helle Terkildsen Maindal believes that now is the time to take action to create equal opportunities for employees – and this applies at both faculty and department level.

“At a minimum, we need clearer and more consistent criteria in academia to ensure equitable conditions for everyone—a more transparent foundation for how engagement and task performance can lead to career advancement, just as publishing scientific articles does. We must avoid systemic differences in career opportunities for men and women,” she asserts.

Efforts for the greater good should count

Academic citizenship, often referred to as academic housekeeping, interests Maindal because it is essential for ensuring high quality, meaning, and value in academic work. However, these contributions are currently excluded from the parameters measured at the faculty.

“When I became acting head of the department in January, I chose academic citizenship as one of my three personal strategic focus areas—something I wanted to prioritise alongside other development and operational tasks,” she explains.

Together with the department's management team, she has initiated a process to explore how merit criteria can be expanded to include these non-credit-bearing academic tasks. They have also looked into how other academic institutions approach academic citizenship.

“One of the most important outcomes for me is that our work on academic citizenship has drawn attention to tasks that contribute to cohesion and collaboration at the department. There is significant potential here that extends far beyond diversifying task distribution. I also see it as part of the faculty’s overall inclusion efforts,” says Helle Terkildsen Maindal.

There is still a long road ahead

She is confident that a positive, recognition-focused approach to the benefits and obligations of academic citizenship, supported by concrete initiatives to reform the merit system, can make a difference. Although her tenure as acting head of department is temporary, she hopes that her efforts have created ripples of change.

“I have experienced great support and interest in the work on academic citizenship within the department—and no direct opposition. I now hope to gain further backing from the department management team to continue the process, ensuring that academic citizenship remains visible both internally and in external recruitment and merit requirements,” she says, before concluding:

“It would be beneficial to examine the diversity of those undertaking these non-credit-bearing tasks and to ensure a better distribution. I also hope our efforts will extend to the rest of the faculty and university.”

Contact

Acting head of department Helle Terkildsen Maindal
Aarhus University, Department of Public Health
Telephone: +45 25 46 23 20
Email: htm@ph.au.dk

You can also read the article "Head of Department: Do I discriminate?", which is also about academic citizenship, among other things.

This text is based on machine translation.