Preprint
Reflections on Ros Seyd's 'Breaking Down Barriers': From misunderstandings to structural design faults
Perspectives Policy and Practice in Higher Education
Taylor & Francis
2026
Abstract
This paper revisits Ros Seyd’s (2000) reflections on the academic–professional divide to argue that what has often been framed as a cultural or relational issue is, in contemporary universities, more accurately understood as a problem of employment design. Drawing on ecological perspectives on the university, it challenges binary academic–professional classifications and highlights the epistemic contributions of professional, technical, and third space actors whose boundary-crossing work increasingly sustains institutional capability. Examining promotion frameworks, job descriptions, and career progression mechanisms, the paper shows how employment architectures institutionalise unequal expectations of professional becoming and recognition. These structures constrain adaptive capacity and undermine institutional sustainability. Reframing the divide as structural rather than interpersonal shifts attention from goodwill to governance and suggests that addressing entrenched inequities requires coherent, role-aligned employment principles capable of recognising diverse forms of knowledge production within an ecological university.
Details
- Title
- Reflections on Ros Seyd's 'Breaking Down Barriers': From misunderstandings to structural design faults
- Authors/Creators
- Michelle Gander (Author) - Murdoch University, Murdoch Business SchoolNatalia Veles (Author) - James Cook University
- Publication Details
- Perspectives Policy and Practice in Higher Education
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Identifiers
- 991005910078907891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch Business School
- Resource Type
- Preprint
Metrics
2 Record Views