The changing face of English universities: reinventing collegiality for the twenty-first century (original) (raw)

A Continuing Role For Academics: The Governance of UK Universities in the Post–Dearing Era

Higher Education Quarterly, 2002

The governance of higher education has become a recognised cause for concern. Many academics lament the demise of an easy collegiality in the face of the rise of a harder managerialism that robs them of control. But outsiders to the system, concerned about the efficiency and effectiveness of higher education management, are critical of the extent to which academics seem all too eager and able to block changes that might lead to universities better addressing the needs of society.This paper rejects the simple nostrums of both those who hark back to a collegial golden age and those who make the case for a brave managerial future. It argues that universities that are capable of real strategic change in response to challenge are capable of transcending the dichotomy between collegiality and managerialism as modes of organisation. In these successful universities, academics must be involved and prepared to lead, but they must also work in partnership with administrators, in institutions ...

Collegiality, managerialism and leadership in English universities

Tertiary Education and Management, 1995

Of particular concern...[is] the stress on 'managerial' modes of conduct in institutions of higher education at the expens e of democratic discussion among c611eagues. (Council for Academic Autonomy 1994-95, membership form) Within higher education the cumulative impact of growth, financial constraint and the various requirements of public and peer accountability, have heightened the importance of cffectivc management at cvery level of decision-making and operation.

Understanding the origins, evolution and state of play in UK university governance

Understanding the process of evolution of university governance types, and the links between them, is important for appreciating current debates over university accountability and management. Shattock (2006) observed that there are four models of university governance in the United Kingdom: Oxbridge, ancient Scottish, civic university and higher education corporation. These four types, or species, of university governance structures came to exist after centuries of evolution. Each type grew out of earlier models and yet all of these models continue to operate in the twenty-first century.

Neo-Collegiality: Restoring Academic Engagement in the Managerial University

University staff are their institutions’ key resource. They are an intelligent, articulate and highly educated group. Despite this, university staff in the UK have little say in how their institutions are managed. As the survey in this paper shows, they would like a more decisive and influential voice. It is over two decades since the collegiality of yesteryear was deemed unviable for modern universities and a new managerial approach became the norm. However, the managerial initiatives which seemed shiny and new then have lost both lustre and novelty now. Current management research argues that hierarchical models are outdated and inappropriate in knowledge-based sectors. Technological advances offer previously undreamed of ways for staff across universities to influence, interact and take decisions. Flatter structures enable greater autonomy and flexibility serving more effectively the needs of student and academic, teaching and research. Neo-collegiality is not about a return to some largely imagined cloistered past. It recognises the necessity of many of the changes wrought by the New Public Management reforms of previous decades. However, neocollegiality asserts that the time is now ripe for managerial paradigms to shift. Neo-collegiality offers the restoration of broader, more collegial decision-making processes to create a professional, efficient and appropriately 21st century management approach. Such processes engage academic and professional staff across institutions, adopting and adapting a range of flexible and innovative means as appropriate to the distinctive features of individual universities in the UK’s large and varied higher education sector.

Change in Universities and Some Consequences for Academics

As globalization and the recasting of the university as a tool of economic restructuring have advanced, much higher education has been transformed from a pedagogical exchange to a market relationship founded on the notion of the student-as-customer. This paper considers research findings drawn from an occupational case study of academics in Australian universities. Our argument challenges the current management paradigm of customer focus as a 'win-win' situation. Critical to this challenge is the issue of the primacy of the link between consumption and production and its impact on the organisation of academics' work. We explore the marketisation and organisational change of universities and some consequences for academics, including: the redesign of work practices, provision of flexible services to meet clients' demands, customising courses to fit the perceived demands of students. We conclude that in the future the commercial interests of universities are likely to dominate academics' interests in terms of their autonomy, collegial decision-making and 'academic freedom'.

New Roles for the University: The British Experience

Journal of Education, 1976

To survey the expansion of British higher education during the last twenty years is to conduct an inquest into an almost unmitigated disaster. The greatly enlarged university system and the new polytechnics have yielded few of the advantages originally claimed by the proponents of rapid growth. The main reason for this failure is that “expansion” has generally been seen as “more of the same.” Since the 1950s, and particularly since the authoritative Robbins Report of 1963, the new universities and polytechnics have too easily become replicas of the old. Higher education has remained geared to the traditional Oxbridge function — the provision of full time, non-vocational, residential, degree courses for 18 – 22 year olds. Significantly, one of the most notable success stories has been the Open University. Unlike conventional institutions, this has introduced a fresh concept of higher education. It offers part time courses catering mainly for adults. The courses are based on correspon...

MANAGING UNIVERSITIES: FROM COLLEGIALITY TO SHARED GOVERNANCE

This work is a introductory review on strategic management of Universities. University management is deeply connected with the ontology of the academic community and the university, unlike other institutions. It is important, but rarely mentioned, to link the ongoing debate in academic literature on the management of universities with current global and local changes through this point of view. Today, one of the most important agenda items of the academic community is how to balance the substantial features of University, and productivity expectations. In this work, the relationship between the principles of management and the collegiality is questioned and different approaches are addressed.

Burton Clark's The Higher Education System: Academic Organization in Cross-National Perspective

London Review of Education, 2010

In The Higher Education System , Burton Clark provides a model for the organisational analysis of higher education institutions and systems. Central to the model are the concepts of knowledge, beliefs and authority. In particular, Clark examines how different interest groups both inside and outside the university shape and subvert the management of change. Within the university, Clark notes the tensions between the 'enterprise' and the 'discipline' and at the system level between the state authority, the market and the academic oligarchy. In considering the applicability of Clark's model to an understanding of today's higher education systems and institutions, one can note a weakening of boundaries both within higher education institutions and between them and other institutions of society. Arguably, there has been a lessening of the organisational distinctiveness of universities and an invasion by the language and ideas of the business world. The broadening ...