The “Republic of Research Administrators” in Europe: How to Get the Researchers Moving

It is often assumed that knowledge, especially academic knowledge, simply moves around the world in a seamless global fl ow. This article, however, examines the diffi cult political and institutional constraints that shape how knowledge, students, and scholars move around the world. When people speak of the “global university,” they generally focus on the dense connection of scholars working and collaborating with one another across long distances (i.e., the “Republic of Letters”). Missing from this view is the recognition of the incredible institutional work that facilitates such collaboration in the fi rst instance—what I call the “Republic of Research Administrators. ” Indeed, running parallel to the Republic of Letters is a large number of human resources (HR) personnel, university administrators, and policy makers whose actions help (or hinder) the fl ow of knowledge. The administration of academic-knowledge production has been a particularly pressing issue for the European Union (EU), the world’s most complex international regional organization. As the EU recovers from the Eurozone crisis, there is growing interest in fi nding ways to expand “free movement” to researchers and students (Chou 2012). After mobility barriers are removed, the belief is that knowledge will circulate freely, making Europe one of the most dynamic economic regions in the world. How the free movement of knowledge, or the “fi fth freedom,” is implemented thus provides an entry point for studying regional initiatives as part of and in response to the internationalization of higher education. This article discusses EU eff orts in implementing the fi fth freedom to reveal a less-examined dimension in fostering knowledge mobility: that is, the administrative apparatus essential to facilitating the movement of researchers across national borders. I show how implementation of the main instrument for enabling the fi fth freedom has contributed to establishing the Republic of Research Administrators in Europe. This particular confi guration, however, is fragile and illustrates how—even within a more formalized framework (e.g., the EU) for international cooperation—the creation of a global movement of academic knowledge is tenuous at best. The fi rst section discusses the main adopted instrument for creating the institutional conditions for the free movement of knowledge. In the absence of political and regulatory support from the member states, I show how the European Commission (EC) recognized the need to bypass national administration and establish the Republic of Research Administrators to implement this instrument. The second section provides fi rsthand information about how this “Republic” is organized. The third section considers the role that the Republic of Research Administrators has in facilitating the free movement of knowledge: that is, as a site of political and instrumental learning rather than rule harmonization. The article concludes with refl ections about the type of administrative work required to get the researchers moving, even within a confi ned geographical space.