Incentivised University

Dr Seán Mfundza Muller is a Senior Research Fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study. An economist by training, he holds three degrees from the University of Cape Town where he was a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Partnership Fellow and one from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His work spans the spectrum from real-world policy to abstract theoretical analysis: from advising members of parliament on public finance issues and legislation, to methodological and philosophical critique of approaches to causal inference. His academic articles have been published in journals in economics, higher education, development and philosophy, and he is a regular contributor to the popular press on matters related to public policy. A crucial component of his work involves critical analysis of the methodological and philosophical basis for public policy claims and decisions. In this, his first book, he critically interrogates the dynamics of the academy itself and how prevalent approaches to institutional structure and incentives in higher education are likely to harm, rather than advance, scientific and societal progress.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Truth-seeking and Scientific Progress.- Chapter 2. What is at Stake: Higher Education for Society.- Chapter 3. The Dynamics of Scientific Progress.- Chapter 4. Philosophy of Science with Consequences.- Part II: The Dangers of Normal Science and Academic Consensus.- Chapter 5. The Existence and Dangers of Normal Science.- Chapter 6. The Dynamics of Consensus and Academic Communities.- Part III Incentives in Modern Higher Education and Their Distortionary Consequences.- Chapter 7. From Accountability to Managerialism and Incentives.- Chapter 8. Incentive Mechanisms in Modern Higher Education.- Chapter 9. Research Impact and Incredible Certitude.- Chapter 10. Rewarding Normal Pseudoscience and Facsimile Science.- Chapter 11. Economics, Facsimile Science and Societal Harm.- Part IV: Variation Across Contexts.- Chapter 12. Variation Across Disciplines, Societies and Institutions.- Chapter 13. Epistemic Hierarchies, Decolonisation and the Periphery.- Part V:Conclusion.- Chapter 14. Scientific Revolutions Will Not Be Incentivised.- Index.

“The topic of the book is highly relevant: the use of incentives to steer research towards progress. … The Incentivised University can be read as an analysis of the incentives and their detrimental effects on research, and it can be read as a debate book, an attempt to push these issues to the fore and to engage researchers, administrators, and policymakers.” (Kåre Letrud, Metascience, Vol. 31 (2), July, 2022)