Reinventing Governance: The Role of Boards of Governors in the New Austrian University

In the last decade, the university sector in many European countries has undergone manifold changes in relation to the design of governance structures and processes. Accordingly, a board of governors with far‐reaching competences was implemented by the latest reform of the Austrian higher education system in 2002. Drawing on an empirical research project, this paper contrasts the basic ideas of this reform with insights into the concrete practice of the new governance structure. The results show that board members’ personal factors such as personality, experience, and their attitude towards the multi‐faceted nature of university governance, strongly influence the boards’ identity formation and actual work. It is concluded that such factors must be regarded when implementing governing boards in universities by means of university reform.     

Transformation of university governance: on the role of university board members

In this conceptual contribution to the study of university governance the authors will approach potential patterns of behavior of key decision-makers at central university level, i.e. roles of governance actors, as well as the set of factors that shape and constrain the governance actor’s room of manoevre and provide avenues to explain varying role enactments through an actor analysis of members of the newly introduced university boards. In a first part the introduction and empowerment of university boards in European higher education institutions is described as a building block of the transformation of university governance. In the second part the main hypothesis derived is that, in governance practice, board members enact roles which are not only shaped and constrained by formal institutions, as given by the organizational context and regulatory structure, but also by conformable, appropriate and legitimate role expectations of central role senders. As a showcase analysis, the roles of university board members are conceptually explored. Especially in the context of recent reform processes, board members who tend to have a varied status set, very often find themselves in a troubling situation of conflicting role expectations, leading to high levels of role conflicts and role ambiguity. It is the aim of this paper to sketch and examine the factors that contribute to the different roles university board members may take.     

Beyond professionalisation: enhancing the governance culture for Australian university governing boards

This article examines emerging norms of good practice for Australian university governing boards and issues that university governing boards could address to develop effective governance cultures. It firstly considers the ways in which support for many Australian university governing boards has become professionalised over the past decade. At the same time, longstanding tensions or ‘paradoxes’ persist, (Cornforth, 2003) notably between ‘corporate’ and ‘participatory’ board models. To ‘tame’ these tensions requires formative processes of deliberation and debate. The article outlines understandings that may assist boards to engage in such processes and to develop their awareness of differing values in governance practices.     

Turning collegial governance on its head: symbolic violence,hegemony and the academic board

This article draws on Bourdieu’s theorisation of domination and Gramsci’s notions of hegemony within the context of a larger empirical study of Australian university academic governance, and of academic boards (also known as academic senates or faculty senates) in particular. Reporting data that suggest a continued but radically altered form of collegial governance in which hegemony is exercised by management rather than by the professor, it theorises the domination of academic boards within western democratic universities. However, traditional collegial governance is also dependent upon a community of scholars, a role historically played by the academic board. In view of the suggested transition in collegial governance and the resultant convergence of academic work and management, the article concludes with questions about whether academic boards can continue to serve as communities of scholars in future.     

The Lambert Code: Can We Define Best Practice?

The article explores the proposals put forward in the Lambert Report for reforms in university governance. It compares the recommendation for a Code with the analogue Combined Code which regulates corporate governance in companies and draws a distinction between attempts, from the Cadbury Report in 1992 to the Higgs Review in 2003, to create board structures which will reduce the prospect of misgovernance, and the underlying aim of Lambert to improve university performance through governance change. It argues that analogies between university governing bodies and company boards are misleading and that university governing bodies, on their own, are almost by definition unable to fulfill the criteria of an ‘effective board’ laid down in the DTI Report on TransTec. It suggests that a Guide on Governance which encourages institutional self determination is a better basis for sustaining institutional autonomy, which is a key ingredient to encouraging high levels of performance, than a Government backed Code which risks reducing institutional diversity and cutting across existing legal instruments. It concludes that the proposed Code is a distraction from serious consideration of what factors encourage improved institutional performance.     

The Students' Role in French Academic Deliberative Democracy

Since 1968, according to the French higher education law, elected students must participate in the different academic boards in every university. As trustees, they must formulate opinions about the institutional policy. Moreover, they must deliberate on equal terms with teachers. According to a common discourse, this democratic activity is still considered as a nonsense because of some students’ structural weaknesses: very low turnout at the elections of their representatives, very high absenteeism rate of these miselected representatives and incapacity to formulate responsible and pragmatic proposals. This students’ uselessness in the academic participatory governance process would come from a post‐modernist air du temps: youth apathy, individualism, democratic societies’ crisis . . . In accordance with the scientific questioning about the contemporary processes of political communication, I propose an alternative set of explanations focused on the spirit and practices which rule French academic boards. I assume that the development and improvement of student participation are also limited by endogenous factors that are closely linked with the functioning of the academic boards. I propose an ethnographic analysis of a French university board. I compare the elected students’ absenteeism to the others members’ (teachers, staff members and guests) attendance rates. Then I study the cultural patterns which structure the interactions. Discursive freedom would be the sine qua non condition of academic autonomy and the structural explanation of weak student participation by teachers.     

Who controls the board in non-profit organizations? The case of private higher education institutions in Colombia

How should the governance system in a non-membership non-profit organization be designed? This organizational form has no shareholders; instead, donors provide funds. Thus, at the organizational level, the board of directors could have all the power. Under this legal form, who controls the board? If too powerful, boards could misuse resources or distract the organization from its foundational goals. We examine the case of private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Colombia and the balance of power in university governance systems which feature this organizational form. Most HEIs in our sample have a kind of assembly of representatives as the governance body with the highest authority and able to appoint and control the board. We specifically discuss the assemblies’ reason for being, structure, and functions in private HEIs in Colombia. We analyze a total of 204 HEI governance structures and find governance arrangements with the characteristics of an assembly of representatives in 154 (75.9%). Our analysis highlights features in some of these governance bodies that could lead to overly powerful assemblies (e.g., founder donors with tenure for life). Clearly, a proper balance of power is required to avoid rent-seeking behaviors or the pursuit of harmful private non-monetary benefits from assembly members as well as boards.     

高职院校的治理:股东会、董事会与校长——以苏州工业园区职业技术学院为个案

当前,我国高等教育的改革进入了实质性阶段,治理结构与治理机制问题成为高校面临的突出问题.公办高校纷纷制定章程,研讨成立理事会和董事会的可能性;民办院校则面临着分类管理以及相应的治理方式的选择问题.苏州工业园区职业技术学院是一所典型的在董事会领导下实施校长负责制的股份制院校,这所院校的股权结构的演变、董事会成员的构成、董事会职能以及股东会、董事会、院长之间的关系和这所民办高校成功处理相关治理问题的经验,为讨论我国现代大学制度建设和法人治理结构提供了可资参考的案例.     

The Activities of Community College Governing Boards: Illinois, 1969–1975

Abstract

Activities of the two state boards having jurisdiction over community colleges in Illinois were determined by examining records and board minutes for the years between 1969 and 1975. It was possible to categorize most activities of these agencies into topics of a governance function, either control or coordination. It was found that about twice as much time and effort per board was devoted to control as compared to coordination. Moreover, of five problems confronting the boards, the data showed that four directly pertained to the coordinating function. Three of the problems—those upon which politicians were taking stands as ascertained from legislative records and by questionnaire to 20 legislators—were deemed political issues: financing, duplication of programs, and fragmentation of the system. Each of these issues was related to the legislative intent in mandating the boards. It is argued that a state agency (or agencies) with greater power to control the institutions may be necessary if competition among the institutions is to be handled within an educational system.     

Adaptive leadership in school boards in Australia: an emergent model

When school boards are confronted with the challenge of unfamiliar, changing contexts, opportunities and governance responsibilities, they have to be able to respond appropriately. The research reported in this paper investigated the response of five Western Australian primary school boards to such situations. It analyses interview data from 49 board members on their roles and responsibilities using elements of Heifetz' framework of adaptive leadership, and explores the implications of these findings for the boards and their leaders. The findings reinforce the importance of the leader's role in choreographing the learning of the board members, and raise questions about the effect that the composition of boards may have on their capacities for strategic thinking. The paper concludes with a model of adaptive leadership appropriate for school boards, emphasising key elements that are necessary for sustained change.     

基于利益相关者视角的高校治理结构优化

随着教育体制改革的深化,高等教育现代化和高水平大学的建设目标对建立现代大学制度提出了迫切要求。高校治理是建立现代大学制度的核心。无论是从大学的社会责任还是大学的组织特性来分析,基于利益相关者视角来研究高校治理问题都是有其合理性的。在分析高校治理结构存在问题的基础上,从董事会、校长、教授等角度入手提出优化我国高校治理结构的着眼点,并构建了优化后的高校治理结构图。     

Good Faith and Trustworthiness in University Governance

Since the mid-1980s, universities have been faced with the rising prominence of the economic mandate in relation to the university's academic mission. In large measure, this has resulted from governments using universities to promote national competitiveness, economic development and employment readiness. To some, universities, themselves, now appear increasingly to behave like business corporations. Many in academe abhor the corporatisation of universities and mistrust their boards of governors for promoting this. Against this background, I ask two questions about the ethics of governors in relation to trust. First, what is the basis of the moral obligation of the board of governors to the university? Second, what are the grounds for the university community determining the board of governors to be trustworthy? Philosophers of education have had much to say about universities, but little about the ethics of governance. In this article, I attempt to address the ethical foundations of governance, and to set out the conditions for the trustworthiness of a board of governors.     

Governing for Results on a Postcollective Bargaining Wisconsin School Board

The popular narrative of Wisconsin’s collective bargaining battle started out being about money. Should public employees pay more toward their healthcare? Can school districts offset state aid cuts using the additional revenue from employee healthcare contributions? Does collective bargaining have a cost? This article gives an overview of Wisconsin school boards, explains exactly how Act 10 increased their power, demonstrates why and how improved school board governance can have an impact on student achievement, reviews the changes Wisconsin school boards are making because of Act 10, and provides policy recommendations to improve both board governance behaviors, and the quality of policies enacted by school boards in the postcollective bargaining era.     

Society,science and institutionally-embodied higher education reform in nineteenth-century Ireland: the role of mobile,professional elites in fashioning reform

ABSTRACT

The paper considers the relation between society, science and institutionally-embodied higher education reform in nineteenth-century Ireland. Institutional reform is measured in terms of governance, curriculum, access and teaching practice. Superiorisation, subversion and fusion are identified as characteristics of reformed institutions. Mobile professional elites are viewed as agents of institutional reform. The institutions examined are Trinity College, Mechanics Institutes, the Museum of Irish Industry, Royal College of Science, Queen’s Colleges, Catholic University, Royal University, and the National University of Ireland. Historians of education have frequently tended to write commemorative histories of individual institutions. This writer’s interest resides less in the institutions per se than in tracing their popular roots and assessing their often strained inter-relationships which qualified their progress and which was conditioned by government’s imperative to manage consensus in the changing milieu within which they operated. As such the paper contributes to much-needed research into the university as ‘a societal phenomenon’.     

Does decentralisation enhance a school’s role of promoting social cohesion? Bosnian school leaders’ perceptions of school governance

This study seeks to understand whether and how decentralised school governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) enhances the schools’ role of promoting social cohesion. This includes increasing “horizontal” trust among different ethnic groups and “vertical” trust between civilians and public institutes. The study examined secondary school leaders’ perceptions regarding school board influence on social cohesion policies and practices, their interactions with school board members, and their accountability to the school-based governing body. The results show that school leaders and school boards, supposedly representing the interests of local stakeholders, did not appear to be actively engaged in the deliberate process of promoting social cohesion. While school directors tended to view themselves as being independent from the school boards, ethnically diverse school boards provided important support to proactive school leaders for their inter-group activities. Given that the central level is not providing initiatives to promote social cohesion and that BiH citizens appear to generally support social cohesion, decentralised school governance has the potential to improve social trust from the bottom up. To promote participatory school governance, the study recommends that BiH school leaders should be provided with opportunities to re-examine and redefine their professional accountability and to assist local stakeholders to improve their involvement in school governance.     

利益相关者视角下的大学治理探析

改革开放以来,随着社会公共治理改革的推进,中国大学治理问题也日益受到社会关注。目前就大学改革与社会经济发展相适应的目标而言,中国大学治理仍然面临着诸多的难题和困境。在此背景下,应基于利益相关者理论和视角,深入了解大学治理的概念、性质和功能,进一步促进大学治理改革的"去行政化",充分构建利益相关者参与治理的渠道和平台,完善大学治理相关章程和规范,努力构建最大程度上满足不同利益相关者利益诉求的新型大学治理模式。     

基于因子分析法的中小板上市公司经营绩效评价及其影响因素分析

以我国中小板上市公司为样本,运用因子分析法对上市公司绩效进行综合评价,为公司绩效评价方法提供有益的借鉴。采用多元回归分析方法,考察公司经营绩效的影响因素。研究发现：中小板上市公司的董事会结构与绩效之间不存在显著的相关关系;股权结构指标与绩效之间呈现出较为显著的相关性;公司总资产规模和负债程度和对公司的绩效也产生了很大的影响。     

Governing Boards in Public Higher Education Institutions: A perspective from the United States

Governing boards have a long tradition and prominent role in U.S. higher education. The diversity of institutional types, and thus governing boards, represents a multifaceted tapestry of functions, roles, and responsibilities. This paper will attempt to define the parameters of public higher education governing boards in the USA and offer critical insights into their degree of effectiveness. It is the author’s position that both positive and negative lessons can be learned through an examination of these public governing boards in the USA. The recent emergence of university boards in Europe is examined and their characteristics are compared against the characteristics of public and private boards in the USA.

     

Governance Paradigms of Public Universities: An international comparative study

This study aims to develop a conceptual model of the wider influencing forces impacting the governance paradigms of public universities. It draws on the multi-theoretical governance concept and seeks to identify these forces through the lens of chief audit executives using a qualitative research approach. The interview data supported by published literature reveal universities are affected differently by a number of common influencing forces, resulting in different governance paradigms. These findings provide insights as to the causal factors that shape a public university’s governance paradigm. The practical implications of the findings are that these forces need to be taken into account in future governance studies of universities as it provides the basis to determine their stakeholder base; consequent contractual obligations with them; and the governance control mechanisms and processes to be developed and implemented at the board, operational and assurance levels of governance.     

权力视野中政府与大学的关系研究——基于南方科技大学的案例

政府与大学的关系问题是大学外部治理结构面临的重要问题。本文以南方科技大学的改革为案例,用权威—目的二分法的理论框架从权力视野来分析南科大现有的外部治理结构对学校发展的制约,指出话语权的缺失是南科大在建立现代大学制度的探索中面临的关键问题。通过政府部门向大学的分权重建大学的话语权,通过分权提高地方政府在改革中的话语权,从集权的社会主义模式的治理走向分权的市场模式的治理,是高等教育改革的必然方向。