Faculty Perceptions of the Efficacy of Higher Educational Governance and Management
In the medieval university, academics were prominent in the governance and management of institutions of higher education, especially in Northern Europe. In contrast, students in Southern Europe had an important role in many decisions. Over time the shift
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Faculty Perceptions of the Efficacy of Higher Educational Governance and Management
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Introduction
In the medieval university, academics were prominent in the governance and management of institutions of higher education, especially in Northern Europe. In contrast, students in Southern Europe had an important role in many decisions. Over time the shift to faculty control extended across the continent. In more recent times as national and local governments have increased their role in the support of higher education, these public entities have sought to have more influence—through boards of trustees, the selection of CEOs and other means. As national systems of higher education have sought to become more relevant and to expand, strains have emerged concerning the respective roles of academics, managers and other stakeholders. In the original planning for the CAP study (the unpublished CAP concept paper formulated in 2004, p. 3), this tension was described as follows: New systemic and institutional processes such as quality assurance have been introduced which also change traditional distributions of power and values within academe and may be a force for change in academic practice. The project will examine both the rhetorics and the realities of academics’ responses to such managerial practices in higher education. A number of views can be discerned about recent attempts at the management of change in higher education and the responses of academics to such changes. One view would see a victory of managerial values over professional ones with academics losing control over both the overall goals of their work practices and their technical tasks. Another view would see the survival of traditional academic values against the managerial approach. This does not imply that academic roles fail to change, but that change does not automatically mean that interests and values are weakened. A third view would see a ‘marriage’ between professionalism and managerialism with academics losing some control over the goals and social purposes of their work but retaining considerable autonomy over their practical and technical tasks. The desirability or otherwise of these three different positions is also subject to a range of different views.
U. Teichler et al., The Changing Academic Profession, The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective 1, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6155-1_6, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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Faculty Perceptions of the Efficacy of Higher Educational…
The CAP Approach
The CAP team sought through a survey instrument both to determine what academics perceived to be the governance and management practices at their institutions and how academics evaluated these practices. Concerning actual practice, academics were asked who, from a list of six potential decision-makers, actually had ‘the primary influence’ on each of 11 areas of decisions. Academics were also asked if they personally were influential in shaping key academic polici
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