Beyond the Faultlines, From The Chronicle: Vice-Chancellors are Misguided in their Decision Making (original) (raw)
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Studies since the mid-1980s suggest that university heads of schools experience the role as a series of tensions between enlightenment and enterprise-building agendas. It is apparent that the headship requires skills in management and capacities in leadership not necessarily furnished via typical academic pathways. In such light, the present investigation asks could the headship be different, given evidence that scholarly productivity and professional satisfaction are often compromised, even where heads value the role and demonstrate effective leadership? My aim is to contribute to the study of leadership and management in higher education; interpret discourses generated about the experience of the headship; analyse how the role is constituted and bounded; and explore how it might be transformed. Focusing on understandings of the headship at the University of Tasmania, Australia, the work is contextualised to experiences elsewhere, and should have salience across the sector.
This guide is a resource for staff of Australasian tertiary institutions who are responsible for developing, reviewing or managing policies for their institution – particularly those who are new to such a role. The guide is provided by the ATEM Institutional Policy Network, a special interest group of the Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM). Workshops and forums of the network are often attended by people who have been asked to develop policies, or who have moved into an institutional policy management role, without much previous experience of such work. Most institutions have in place resources, support and tools for staff responsible for policy development, but this is still not universally the case. Even where support is available, staff may not be aware of it, or it may not fully meet their needs. In such cases, they may seek support and guidance from other staff within the institution, or from those in similar roles at other institutions. This guide attempts to...
2012
In the last few years, a scholarly critique of current forms and directions of higher education has become increasingly prominent. This work, often but not exclusively focussed on the American and British systems, and on humanities disciplines, laments the transformation of the university into ‘a fast-food outlet that sells only those ideas that its managers believe will sell [and] treats its employees as if they were too devious or stupid to be trusted’ (Parker and Jary 335). Topics include the proliferation of courses and subject areas seen as profitable, particularly for overseas students;1 the commensurate diminution or dissolution of ‘unprofitable’ areas; the de-professionalisation of academic staff and limitation of their powers in decisionmaking; the dismantling of academic disciplines and department-based academic units; the growing size and authority of management in determining priorities in research (see Laudel) and teaching; quantification and evaluation of academic work...