- E-mailroxana-diana.baltaru@uib.no
- Visitor AddressRosenbergsgaten 395015 Bergen
- Postal AddressPostboks 78025020 Bergen
Prior to my appointment as Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Bergen, I taught and conducted research in the UK. For several years, I worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. I got my PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex. I was also a Visiting Researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education in the US.
My research lies at the intersections of Sociology of Education, Institutional Theory, and Organizational Studies. My most recent work focuses on the organizational transformation of universities worldwide, covering issues of administrative growth, the institutionalization of new university missions, inclusion, internationalization, and financial sustainability.
I am especially interested in how empirical research in the field of social sciences can be used to question the capabilities of purposive organizational action. At the theoretical level, I explore how contrasting insights from functionalist perspectives and global institutional perspectives can help us make sense of one of the biggest social problems of our time - the dislocation between formal goals and action.
I am currently engaged in a research project funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Foundation, where I explore the (de)coupling between institutional missions and practice, using the case study of inclusion-oriented goals in universities.
- (2023). Minority Ethnic Staff in Universities: Organisational Commitments, Reputation and the (Re)structuring of the Staff Body. Sociology. 66-82.
More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)
Latest publications
Baltaru, R.D. (2023). Minority Ethnic Staff in Universities: Organisational Commitments, Reputation and the (Re)structuring of the Staff Body. Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231163107.
Baltaru, R.D., Manac, R.D., Miruna, I. (2022). Do Rankings affect Financial Sustainability? Financial Vulnerability to Rankings and Elite Status as a Positional Good. Studies in Higher Education, 2323-2335.
Soysal, Y., Baltaru, R.D., & Cebolla-Boado, H. (2022). Meritocracy or Reputation? How University Rankings Matter. Globalization, Societies and Education.
Soysal, Y., and Baltaru, R.D. (2021). University as the producer of knowledge, and economic and societal value: the 20th and twenty-first century transformations of the UK higher education system. European Journal of Higher Education, 11(3):312-328.
Baltaru, R.D. (2020). The rise of agentic inclusion in the UK universities: reputation through (formal) diversification. Studies in Higher Education. 10.1080/03075079.2020.1739015.
Baltaru, R.D. (2019). – UK Universities’ Pursuit of Inclusion and Its Effects on Professional Staff. Higher Education 1-16. doi:10.1007/s10734-018-0293-7.
Baltaru, R.D. (2018). Do Non-Academic Professionals Enhance University Performance? Reputation vs Organisation. Studies in Higher Education, 1-14. doi:10.1080/03075079.2017.1421156.
Baltaru, R.D. & Soysal, Y. N. (2017). Administrators in Higher Education - Organizational Expansion in a Transforming Institution. Higher Education, 1-17. doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0204-3.
Baltaru, R.D. (2022). Borderlessness between Academic and Non-Academic Professionals– an Analysis of Occupational (re)Classifications in the UK. In: Research Handbook on Academic Careers and Managing Academics. Sarrico, C.S., Rosa, M.J., Carvalho, T. (Eds). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, p. 99-110. Collection: Sociology, Social Policy and Education.
Blogs
Baltaru, R.D. (2023). Academic precarity undermines the Race Equality Charter. LSE Impact Blog Academic precarity undermines the Race Equality Charter | Impact of Social Sciences (lse.ac.uk).
Baltaru, R.D. (2022). Rankings affect the financial sustainability of English universities, just not for the elite. LSE Impact Blog Rankings affect the financial sustainability of English universities, just not for the elite | Impact of Social Sciences (lse.ac.uk).