University impact requires criticism, rigour, bravery, education

The call for universities and academics to have impact is ­impor­tant and legitimate, and there is a strong narrative about how many in the social sciences have failed to achieve this. But I am also struck that a very great number of those who work within my discipline, international relations, already strive to be ­impactful and indeed often cite the desire to make a difference as a key reason to become an academic. If we want to better improve the impact of academic work we must ask why it is that despite so many attempts to do so, there is still ­intense dissatisfaction among many in academe and beyond about the present state of affairs. To understand what is going on we must start with a full account of what impact should be. I do not mean the many examples of ­impact that universities are now collecting. Instead, I mean a ­detailed appraisal of what these examples all rotate around. There are four dimensions to impact that we should foster: criticism, rigour, bravery and education.