The dissertation explores the dynamics of change and continuity in the values and practices of academic cultures. The context of the study is the Finnish ‘mass research university’, which has emerged due to a significant growth in the funding of academic research in Finland since the 1990s. Only a small proportion of the increased research funding has been channelled to universities through their budget funding, while the bulk of it has been allocated through mechanisms designed to increase the internationality, efficiency and societal relevance of research. These changes have led to a situation in which a large share of academic research today is conducted by PhD students working in externally funded projects. At the same time, the number of academics having university posts has remained constant, regardless of the growth in the number of students and the expansion of responsibilities in attracting and managing externally funded research projects.

The dissertation consists of five journal articles, which were written between 1998 and 2008 in connection with several research projects, and an introductory essay, which binds the articles together. The research questions presented in the articles can be rephrased as three broader questions: 1. How has the Finnish policy emphasis on the internationalization of research been interpreted and reacted to in different disciplines? (Articles I and II) 2. To what extent has the increase of external research funding shaped understandings of the audiences of research, and thus the motivation for doing research, in different disciplinary and organizational contexts? (Articles III and IV) 3. Have research environments characterized by external funding and utility-oriented research given rise to new modes of research training, socialization and identities? (Articles IV and V)

In analyzing these questions, the dissertation brings together the tradition of describing and classifying differences among disciplinary cultures, most often associated with Tony Becher’s work, and more recent research focusing on change in academia toward entrepreneurial and managerial practices. Despite many references to change in the values, practices and identities of academics, the recent research only rarely pays explicit attention to the role of academic cultures in the process. The empirical analyses are qualitative and comparative. The data comprises three sets of semi-structured interviews with researchers representing different disciplines and organizational contexts as well as different generations and statuses.

The dissertation shows that the recent macro-level trends can be detected in various forms and combinations in distinct academic communities. Change in the values and meanings is a matter of shifting balances rather than a dramatic trans-formation from one type of culture to another: new elements enter the web of meanings and interlace with the already existing elements. At the centre of these shifts are the future of the academic research orientation and the moral framework it provides to academics. While the academic orientation is not the only motivating element in any of the academic environments studied, it is important in all of them. However, there are significant differences between the senior and junior researchers and among different disciplinary contexts in how pressures for change are experienced.

The dissertation also demonstrates that even though internationalization is welcomed in all disciplinary groups, the meanings attached to internationality are different in the soft and the hard fields. Especially researchers in the soft fields think that pressure for further internationalization homogenizes research fields and thus makes it difficult to address all important audiences of research. Furthermore, the dissertation shows that academic socialization and doctoral education suffer from problems that are related both to the German-influenced tradition of research training in Finland and to the current funding patterns and personnel structures of academic units. Thus they cannot be solved through the graduate school system. It is suggested that providing more stable academic environments would improve the likelihood that researchers at different stages of their academic careers would find the mass research university an attractive place in which to work also in the future.