Performance agreements for clearer institutional profiles and better division of labour
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Performance agreements for clearer institutional profiles and better division of labour Ingvild Marheim Larsen 1
1
1
& Mai-Lin Hofsøy & Zheng Ørvim Yuan & Petter Aasen
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Received: 30 April 2019 / Accepted: 30 May 2019/ # The European Higher Education Society 2019
Abstract Performance agreements in higher education are seen as a promising steering tool in many countries, including Norway. The aims of the performance agreements in Norwegian higher education are to enhance quality and diversity through clearer institutional profiles and better division of labour between institutions. An expert group that carried out an assessment of the funding system recommended the Norwegian Ministry of Education & Research to implement institutional multi-year performance agreements to enhance quality, diversity and cooperation. In 2016–17 the Ministry implemented an incremental process covering initially five plus other five pilot institutions. This article gives an overview of the context, process and framework of performance agreements at the national level as well as how this new steering tool is being handled in one of the pilot institutions. It focuses on the implementation process and is based on qualitative observations and written communication between the Ministry and the pilot institutions. Although, it is still too early to evaluate the results and the impact of performance agreements in Norwegian higher education, the experience so far indicates that it seems to be possible through negotiations between the Ministry and the institutions to strengthen the institutional profile by prioritizing goals and measures. The content in the pilot agreements differ and no obligatory indicators are part of the agreements. The incremental implementation process has limited the discussion on complementarity. Even though actions towards the division of labour between institutions are an important part of some of the agreements, this seems to be a more challenging task than profiling. Keywords Diversity . Governance . Higher education policy/development . Institutional performance measures . Strategic planning
* Ingvild Marheim Larsen [email protected]
1
Norwegian Ministry of Education & Research, Box 8119 Dep, 0032 Oslo, Norway
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University of South-Eastern Norway, Box 235, 3603 Kongsberg, Norway
Tertiary Education and Management
Introduction A more diversified higher education sector has been on the agenda in many countries for decades. Diversification at the system level is regarded as a prerequisite to meet different demands and challenges, both nationally and globally, and to promote specialization for quality in higher education. These efforts are also reflected in the higher education literature (e.g. Birnbaum 1983; Goedegebuure et al. 1994). The fact that diversity is a recurrent theme indicates that the issue is not resolved. Many steps have been taken to promote differentiation in higher education systems, but not all have been successful. Accordingly, new measures have been introduced and performance agreements are
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