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

The Changing Relationship between Institutional Governance and Management in the United Kingdom: A Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Perspective

Tertiary Education and Management, 2000

The changing relationship betweeninstitutional governance and management in the unitedkingdom arising from the second report of thecommittee on standards in public life, the UnitedKingdom National Committee of Inquiry into HigherEducation, and from significant increased governmentexpenditure on higher education is examined. Theframework of accountability within which highereducation institutions operate is related to thesereports. The Scottish Higher Education FundingCouncil's (SHEFC) perspective of the role of thegoverning body is examined and contrasted with bargh,scott and smith's research on governing bodies. BothSHEFC's perspective and Bargh et al.'s researchare also contrasted with, and related to, a number ofNational Audit Office (NAO) reports and also toProfessor sizer's investigation and the nao reportinto allegations of misconduct at glasgow caledonianuniversity (1998). Finally, the paper drawsconclusions on the changing relationship betweengoverning bodies and managements, on the requirementon governing bodies to demonstrate that they areappropriately constituted and operate effectively ascorporate bodies, and on how these are reflected inthe SHEFC code of good practice and good practicebenchmarks.

Global Challenges and Trends of University Governance Structures

Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership, 2019

This chapter tries to identify the different trends in university governance and their underlying causes. Although it focuses on university trends in Europe, it makes reference to global trends and causes, such as digitalization, inter-connectivity of our societies, and growing international competition. In sum, the chapter argues that the digital evolution has led both to a changed approach to teaching as well as to growing global competition in the race to obtain the best talent. This, in combination with a generation that has a growing access to higher education and that thrives on “instant knowledge-satisfaction,” has led to university governance changes that better fit current needs. Government-led austerity programs have further accelerated these changes, as universities seek to optimize their financing whilst, at the same time, striving to move up the international rankings. University governance trends include a professionalization of management, the creation of internationa...

A Renewed University Governance

International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector, 2013

ing new pressures and demands on higher education systems and deeply influencing the context in which universities operate. The paper attempts to investigate governance issues and the need for new strategic paths emerging as a result of changed scenarios. Specifically, the greater number of stakeholders involved in academic activities requires universities to take into account a variety of social, economic and cultural factors when making strategic decisions. Adjustments in board composition through appointing non-academic members are signals of such trends. Moving from this consideration and relying on data on the governance structures of Italian universities, the paper discusses challenges for academic institutions in terms of change in their strategic management and governance structures as well as the likely directions such change is taking.

University Governance: Weak at the Top

The Strategies of Australia’s Universities, 2020

In the romanticised 'golden age' of universities the ivy-clad sandstone buildings formed a sacred site and the beating heart of a university was its tenured scholars. Many people bonded themselves for life to their university. The vice chancellor's door was always open to these scholars. The role of vice chancellor was a part-time appointment occupied by one of the 'older gentleman'. Someone once said that the leader's role was to consider the university to be a rare, delicate, antique crystal bowl. The task was to carry the bowl through a maze of slippery corridors. It didn't matter which corridors were chosen. The only requirement for success was that the vice chancellor must never drop the bowl. In this world the academics were responsible for the curriculum, student experience and research, while the vice chancellor was responsible for buildings, ceremony and external relations. Heads of departments and faculties defined the direction of their empires and the progress of their academic staff. Many also controlled a discretionary budget for special purposes. In some cases, governance involved a degree of collective decision-making, or at least the sharing of information and the lively discussion of issues that has now largely disappeared from university life.

Kim, T. (2008) Changing University Governance and Management in the UK and Elsewhere under Market Conditions: Issues of Quality Assurance and Accountability In Intellectual Economics Scientific Research Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4

Intellectual Economics Scientific Research Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4 [INTELEKTINË EKONOMIKA Mokslo darbø þurnalas, Nr. 2(4)] , 2008

Kim, T. (2008) Changing University Governance and Management in the UK and Elsewhere under Market Conditions: Issues of Quality Assurance and Accountability In Intellectual Economics Scientific Research Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4 [INTELEKTINË EKONOMIKA Mokslo darbø þurnalas, Nr. 2(4)] Mykolas Romeris University-OECD/IMHE Conference Proceedings on ‘Higher Education under Market Conditions’ held in Vilnius, Lithuania, 17-18 April 2008 pp. 33-42 (ISSN: 1822-8011; Published in both English and Lithuanian: http://www3.mruni.eu/\~int.economics/4nr/kim\_en.html).