University sustainability reporting: taking stock of transparency

This paper interrogates the case for improved and broadened public sustainability reporting by universities, and explores whether and how global performance measures capture the institutional attitudes and activities pertinent to universities’ contributions to sustainability. The analysis explores all stand-alone, English language reports produced by universities world-wide since 2007. The analysis focuses primarily on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) index. The paper finds that those universities which have adopted the GRI share a distinct conceptualisation of their role in society. The GRI framework is helpful in capturing universities’ environmental impacts and benefits, but is lacking in relation to universities’ human rights and social concerns. The paper identifies value in universities adopting a globally accepted sustainability reporting framework and makes specific suggestions as to how the framework might be better adapted for universities.     

The Changing Structure of British Higher Education: How diverse is it?

With the passage of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act the British system of higher education formally moved from a binary to a unitary structure. However, ever since successive governments have argued for a diversified model of higher education within which institutions should pursue contrasting goals. This article offers an interpretation of the key ingredients of institutional diversification and constructs alternative structural models of higher education. It proceeds by exploring the changing structure of British higher education since the creation of the unitary model. The argument is that there has been a steady emergence of flexible sectors, which both converge and diversify. However, there is a danger that the 2011 White Paper, rather than sustaining flexible sectors, could intensify the nascent shift in the direction of stratification marked by increasing differentiation between sectors as they converge internally.     

Where is the gap between internationalisation strategic planning and its implementation? A study of 16 Dutch universities’ internationalisation plans

A dominant concern with internationalisation through the past decades has been the process of strategic transformation of universities. While strategic management has been perceived as a necessary and useful approach in the construction of internationalisation, many criticisms have been levelled against the application of strategic management in internationalisation. One of these criticisms is the ‘implementation gap’ between internationalisation strategic plans and their actual outcomes. Based on interview data collected from 73 key actors involved in internationalisation at 16 Dutch public universities, this research identifies 12 elements that comprise the concept strategic management and illustrates how educational practitioners in different sectors (research universities and universities of applied sciences) and job function levels (central and faculty) prioritise these elements. The key contribution of this research is the clarification of the areas where the ‘implementation gap’ exists and the causes of this gap. The findings of this research are particularly important in the midst of uncontested popularisation of strategic management, because they can help universities to reduce this gap and improve the effectiveness of their strategic management practices.     

Managing mergers — governancing institutional integration

Despite striking similarities, the adoption and implementation of policy shifts regarding higher education governance vary considerably across the globe, suggesting a mixed picture of diversification and isomorphism both within and across national higher education systems. By unpacking one particular structural reform process, this paper focuses on mergers as both a governance tool and a governance result in higher education. The paper analyzes the strategic decisions taken by Norwegian higher education institutions during 2014 in the light of a proposed national reform to merge institutions in order to enhance quality in higher education. The empirical basis of the paper consists of analyses of the commissioned self-evaluations of the higher education institutions, and the strategic choices and dilemmas they expressed. The process can be seen as organizational engineering in the sense that it emerges from the self-evaluation process, but is also subject to governancing on the part of the ministry.     

促进学生国际流动的国家政策:何以可以与何以可为?

随着全球社会发展与国际教育相互关系变得广泛与深刻,国家已成为参与国际高等教育竞争有影响力的行动者.作为国际教育竞争的基石与国家经济竞争力领域的关键结构,学生国际流动被视为促进国家公共外交与培养全球竞争力人才的重要政策工具.全球范围促进学生国际流动的国家政策呈现既复杂又不平衡的特点.以国际教育战略与项目计划为发展先导、参...     

Research planning and management in non‐traditional research discipline areas

Abstract

In its drive for higher efficiency and effectiveness in higher education, the Australian Commonwealth Government released its policy on higher education, Higher Education: A Policy Statement during the late 1980s which contributed to the introduction of performance indicators to manage and assess the performance of the higher education system. The research component of annual Commonwealth funding to universities, called the Research Quantum, is now distributed by a set of performance indicators: external research income, publications count and higher degree research completions. This paper analysed the impact of these indicators on the research activities of Australian university academics based on Leibenstein's model of X‐efficiency. Although the impact of performance indicators on university academics was found to follow the pressure‐effort relationship, for some respondents, the increase in effort as a result of heightened pressure had involved strategic behaviour. Two conditions that are identified for the minimisation of an institution's X‐inefficiency despite high staff effort are a high ratio of maximising to non‐maximising decisions for both the staff and institution, and for all the institution's essential objectives/activities, and not just those which are measured by the performance indicators. The implications of these findings for the development and application of performance indicators are discussed.     

高等学校特色发展规划存在的若干问题——基于辽宁省79所高校特色发展战略规划文本的分析

本文以辽宁省79所普通高校特色发展规划文本为研究对象,从战略管理角度对高校特色发展战略规划中存在的问题进行探讨,提出实施高校特色发展战略必须健全战略管理环节、必须以\"特色\"为核心进行战略设计安排、必须\"内外兼顾\"全面规划,必须高度重视战略实施、战略评估环节等。     

Funding, resource allocation, and performance in higher education systems

This article analyzes forms of resourceallocation in university systems and theireffects on performance in institutions ofhigher education. Internationally, highereducation systems differ substantially withregard to research and education fundingsources and to ways that resources areallocated. European universities receive themajority of their funding from public sources,but private funding plays a more important rolein Anglo-American systems of higher education.Many governments use competitive elements inthe process of allocating public funds toinstitutions of higher education. Examplesinclude the implementation of performancemeasures through formula funding, or resourceallocation on the basis of evaluated projectproposals. Corresponding forms ofperformance-based resource allocation can befound within most higher educationinstitutions. This article analyzes how variousforms of funding and resource allocation affectuniversities at the macro-level and individualbehavior at the micro-level. A theoreticalapproach to this problem suggests thatperformance-based funding tends to bring aboutpositive changes but is also a factor inunintended side effects. Forms of resourceallocation influence the behavior of academicsand managers in higher education, particularlytheir levels of activity as well as the kindsof activities they engage in and their ways ofdealing with risks. Empirical analyses partlyconfirm these hypotheses. It can be shown thatchanges in resource allocation have an impacton the level and type of activity academicsconcentrate on but not on the long-term successof universities.     

浅析“9·11”以来美国高等教育国际化新进展

美国是当今世界高等教育最发达的国家之一,经过几百年的发展,其国际化程度已非常显著。然而,21世纪初发生的“9·11”事件对美国社会的各个领域产生了深远的影响,高等教育的国际化格局也遭受了严重冲击。在新的国际背景和社会发展形势下,美国高等教育国际化出现了新的发展动向。在学生流动方面,留学生数量由减少到不断增加、留学目的地变的多样化;在科研环境方面,自由的学术氛围受到抑制、联邦政府的资金支持力度有所弱化;在课程国际化方面,课程设置出现倾向性、外语教学受到重视、国际联合课程的开发备受关注。当前来看,美国高等教育国际化的多维发展促使其趋向于全面国际化。