Collegiality and managerialism: a false dichotomy? Evidence from the higher education literature

Collegiality and managerialism are often portrayed as opposed ideas or practices, with the latter, in particular, either held up as a necessary response to the massification of higher education or portrayed as a betrayal of long-held academic ideals (as supposedly reflected in collegiality). This article explores how collegiality and managerialism have been conceptualized, presented and researched in the higher education literature. It concludes that the two concepts are not as dichotomous as some have argued, and that both have a role in our thinking about the future of higher education.     

Is There a Need for a European Institutional Research?

Recent changes in European higher education have accompanied a strong desire and need by national ministries to have comparable data across institutions and a growing recognition from campus leaders that effective planning and decision-making requires reliable institutional data and analyses. This has induced changes and restructuring of duties and roles of administration, administrative staff and academic staff. In North America, internal institutional data analysis is often referred to as institutional research. We examine the roles and functions of institutional research within North America and how the changes within European higher education have created a purpose for institutional research. Specifically, we explore the topical areas of institutional assessment, data management, institutional governance, as well asthe changing identity of academic professionals within European universities. Within our examination, we explore in-depth one European country’s higher education system to demonstrate how history, culture and legislative changes manifest into a need for institutional research.     

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.     

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.     

20世纪90年代以来我国高等教育规模发展的政策文本与实施效果分析

20世纪90年代以来,高等教育规模发展政策一直是我国高等教育政策的一个重要组成部分。本文首先从规模发展目标、发展方式以及宏观规模管理三方面对这一时期我国高等教育规模发展政策进行文本分析,接着评析了这一时期高等教育规模发展政策实施的效果。在此基础上,分别从政策主体、政策客体和决策过程三方面,提出了今后我国高等教育发展政策创新的路径选择。     

我国高等教育转型发展中的风险共存及政策管理

当前我国高等教育处于转型发展时期,已成为中国风险社会的重要领域.中国高等教育转型发展正面临就业压力快速增大、国际化办学中自主权失控、竞争失序、质量风险、公平风险、异化风险六大风险.在政策管理上需要确立科学的风险意识和风险观念,提高高等教育公共政策的科学性和执行力,加强风险防范的责任体系建设.