In an overcrowded train, somewhere between two capital cities, a woman sits on the floor. Around her, suitcases roll by, passengers get on and off, the clatter of the tracks is constant. On her lap: a stack of student papers she is carefully grading. No time to rest. No time for a permanent workspace. No time for research.
This woman is not a student with a side job. She is a lecturer with a PhD, holding two part-time positions—at two universities hundreds of kilometers apart. She commutes several times a week because neither institution can offer her a full position. Her life plays out between lecture halls and train carriages. The floor of the train is her office.
This is no isolated case. It is a symbol of an academic world that no longer lives in libraries and laboratories, but in timetables, schedules, and production logics.
The University as Factory – More Than Just Mass Production
When people talk about the “university as a factory” today, they often think of overcrowded lecture halls and mass processing of students. But that’s only half the story. The real factory principle runs deeper: it is the logic of maximizing output, no matter the cost.
In this logic, students are raw material. Teachers and researchers are the machines. And the finished products are publications, grant-funded projects, rankings—numbers that can be measured, compared, and optimized.
The university, once a place of free research and teaching, has become a production plant. It doesn’t just create knowledge—it manufactures “knowledge goods”: papers, projects, and metrics designed to feed the next evaluation report.
Publish or Perish: Assembly-Line Work in the Ivory Tower
The motto “publish or perish” is no exaggeration anymore. Anyone who wants to stay in academia must produce constantly—not necessarily the best work, but the next piece of work.
As in a factory, what counts most is the quantity. Instead of deep, long-term research, we see many small, quickly published studies. The gain in understanding shrinks, but the output rises.
The woman on the train is also part of this system. She teaches, grades, commutes—and still must publish to stand a chance at a permanent job. This is no longer a research culture. This is production pressure. On publish or perish, we have a whole article.
When Research Still Had Time
It wasn’t always this way. In antiquity, knowledge was not a commodity but a way of life. Aristotle didn’t research to place his next paper—he sought to understand how the world works.
In the 19th century, Wilhelm von Humboldt put this ideal into words: the unity of research and teaching, fueled by curiosity, critical thought, and intellectual freedom. Universities were meant to be places where teachers and students explore together, asking questions and seeking answers—without immediate pressure to monetize results.
Today, that ideal feels like a relic. Instead of letting ideas mature, many academics rush from project to project, from semester to semester.
The Double Production: People and Papers
The modern university produces two things: graduates and publications. Both follow the logic of efficiency—more degrees per year, more publications per head.
The problem is that in this factory, people also become “products.” Students are molded into standardized units of labor, pushed through their programs as quickly as possible.
And the academics themselves? They are trained to keep the machine running—not to question it. The woman on the train is perfectly prepared to participate in this process, but she has little space to do what she was trained for: free, independent research.
Academic Inflation – Too Many for Too Few Jobs
The production logic also means training more PhDs and postdocs than there are permanent jobs. This leads to academic inflation: more highly qualified people competing for fewer long-term positions.
The result: endless temporary contracts, part-time work, and long commutes across the country. Young researchers live for years in a state of permanent uncertainty. Some leave in frustration. Others hold on, hoping to land one of the few professorship. On precarious academic employment in this article.
Research Without Research
Alongside financial pressure, there’s a second, quieter crisis: lack of time. Many academics spend more hours on teaching, administration, grant writing, and peer review than on research itself.
True research—asking big, difficult questions and pursuing complex ideas over many years—has become rare. Most projects must fit into funding cycles, and these cycles are short. Those who don’t adapt lose both funding and career prospects.
Careerists in Lab Coats
Not everyone in research is driven by the work itself. The system also attracts those who primarily seek the title, the position, the prestige.
These careerists aren’t necessarily worse scientists—but their motivation is different. They think strategically, network effectively, and tailor research topics to trends and funders’ interests.
This further distances academia from what research could be: a deeply personal, often uncomfortable process of understanding.
The Silent Losses
Perhaps the greatest damage is done not by scandals, but by what never happens: ideas never pursued because they’re too complex or too big, questions never asked because they don’t fit a grant program.
The system rewards short-termism, safety, and conformity. It punishes long-term thinking, uncertainty, and radical questions.
Division of Labor Instead of Overloading
One possible solution is to separate roles more clearly: stop expecting every academic to excel equally in both teaching and research.
Research needs depth, time, and often the freedom to work without an immediate teaching goal. Teaching needs pedagogical skill, patience, and student focus.
Both are valuable, independent tasks. Why not create teams in which research-focused and teaching-focused members work together, instead of overburdening everyone?
Remembering the True Mission
Universities must remember that their goal is not to produce publications and graduates, but to advance understanding. Research is not an output—it’s an attitude.
The woman on the train, commuting between two universities and grading papers on the floor, is the embodiment of a system that denies people the time, security, and freedom they need to make real discoveries.
If we want research to be what it once was, we must break the factory logic. Otherwise, the ivory tower will remain nothing more than an assembly line.
Key References
Bai, B., Chen, L., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Impact of absolute and relative commute time on work–family conflict. Sustainability, 13(14), 7854. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7882237/
Bernard, J. (2024). Academic capitalism and precarity in the neoliberal university. International Review of Education, 70(2), 231–254. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irj.12466
Humboldt, W. von. (1792–1793). Theorie der Bildung des Menschen [The Theory of the Education of Man] . Berlin: Nicolai.
Johnson, B. C., & Malone, D. E. Jr. (2023). Adjunct faculty perceptions of grade inflation at U.S. colleges and universities. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 7(1), 55–78. https://www.ajqr.org/article/not-me-not-here-adjunct-faculty-perceptions-of-grade-inflation-at-us-colleges-and-universities-13137
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state, and higher education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234593995_Academic_Capitalism_and_the_New_Economy_Markets_State_and_Higher_Education
Inspired by HBS Puar
Authored by Rebekka Brandt