Means-ends decoupling and academic identities in Ukrainian university after the Revolution of Dignity

This article aims to explore the academic identities under the conditions of means-ends decoupling at the nation-state level. For empirical evidence we choose Ukraine. In 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity despite the adoption of the policies aimed to construct academic identities like in the Western universities the intended outcomes were not achieved. It occurred due to means-ends decoupling both at the nation-state and organizational levels. Policy initiatives involved a decrease in teaching workload of academics, they to allocate more time for research. The education ministry also changed the requirements to the scientific titles aiming to enhance the quality of higher education though the focus of the academics on the research at the international level and improvement of their knowledge of English. Our findings reveal that means-ends decoupling not only passes down from the nation-state and organizational levels to the level of individuals but also results also in significant diversion of human intellectual capital and identity conflict experienced by academics. Data is taken from the interviews with nineteen academics from humanities, social, natural and technical sciences affiliated to one Ukrainian university.