Governance and trust in higher education

Abstract

The adoption of more corporate models of governance is a contemporary trend in higher education. In the early 2000s, the Australian Government legislated national governance protocols for universities, using the policy lever of financial sanctions. These more corporate‐style governance protocols followed similar changes in the UK, consistent with a historical pattern of Australia borrowing policy ‘on trust’ from its former colonial ruler. However, the Australian approach represented much tighter government regulation than in the UK. This article employs a conceptual lens of trust to analyse changing policy on governance in Australian higher education. Analysis reveals that national governance protocols contributed to a culture of mistrust across the sector, although the dynamics of trust–mistrust relationships were complex and included apparent trust ‘settlements’ between particular stakeholder groups. This analysis offers another step in nascent investigations into trust and the governance of higher education.