Abstract
This developmental paper explores the sense of belonging amongst a frequently overlooked group in higher education, the mid-career academics. The ‘leaky pipeline’ in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) academia is a widely accepted phenomenon affecting women and minorities and whilst much of the efforts to date focus on the bottom-up approach by increased recruitment of future STEM academics, this project seeks to focus on the often-forgotten middle part of the pipeline.
In an effort to transform academia for the better and to remove any societal, organisational and personal barriers continuously experienced by students and staff, it is essential that all groups receive an equal amount of attention. Therefore, this research seeks to fill the gap in understanding of lived experiences of mid-career STEM academics.
This qualitative study sets out to understand how the intersectional self-identification of participants impacts their experiences of (non)belonging in UK higher education. Following the initial stages, the project intends to explore the raised issues in more depth, as well as to expand its reach to include participants from across more UK universities. This will be done to evaluate their experiences of the identified themes and to gauge their proposed solutions.
In the long term, the research seeks to develop a blueprint for sustainable solutions towards improving the work environment of academic colleagues employed at post-92 institutions.