Effects of Managerialism on the Perceptions of Higher Education in Portugal
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Effects of Managerialism on the Perceptions of Higher Education in Portugal Rui A. Santiago and Teresa Carvalho University of Aveiro and CIPES, Rua 11 de Dezembro, 399, 4450-227 Matosinhos, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
How does the rhetoric of managerialism influence actors’ perceptions about the ultimate goals of Portuguese higher education (HE)? From the data, based on interviews, three major themes were extracted: teaching/research relationship, HE’s cultural and social relevance, and its economical relevance. The actors’ narratives led to the conclusion that the ‘managerialist rhetoric’ is not dominant. In the teaching/research relationship, most actors considered that research should be the main force behind teaching. In cultural and social relevance, the actors’ discourses reflect an idea of HE based on ‘traditional’ academic values. Finally, a more utilitarian perspective of HE emerges in some actors’ discourses about developing a closer connection both between teaching and the labour market and between research and economic competitive needs. Higher Education Policy (2004) 17, 427–444. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300066 Keywords: higher education; politics; managerialism; Portugal; teaching and research; economic; social/cultural relevance
Introduction Attempts to introduce managerialist accounts and practices in higher education (HE) are usually based on two types of arguments. On the one hand, the HE system and its institutions do not overhaul themselves as fast as the changes that occur in their environment. On the other, collegial governance is dominated by traditional academic structures and practices, aligned with guild-like interests, thus creating ‘irrationalities’ and ‘inefficiencies’ in both the system and its institutions. Managerialism is frequently identified as a set of management processes and instruments, technically unarguable, and socially and politically neutral. Its main goals are both achievement of efficiency, and measurement of the performance of the HE system, its institutions and its professionals. However, its frame of reference is broader in scope and is theoretically and ideologically well established. It combines political, institutional and organizational assumptions with principles of rationality that apparently do not seem to be
Rui A. Santiago and Teresa Carvalho Effects of Managerialism on the Perceptions of HE in Portugal
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organized, but in which it is possible to detect some coherence around the notions of market, competition, individual choice, responsibility and efficiency. The managerialist influence over HE in this context is felt at two different levels: at the level of political strategies oriented to system reorganization; and at the institutional level including governance and management of higher education institutions (HEIs) and change of their institutional culture, and of the individual behaviour of their professionals. These two levels influence the conceptualization of HEIs’ missions and ultimate goals, which have an import
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