Strengthening Academic Governance into the Future

Abstract

Much of the discussion within preceding chapters has highlighted ways in which academic voices are constrained within the design and practice of contemporary academic governance and on the particular risks of this. This chapter focuses on identifying ways institutional-level academic governance can be strengthened through a particular emphasis on the academic board. The emphasis is on academic boards not only because these bodies serve as the principal academic governance agency within universities but also because academic boards are unique sites where much can be done to reinsert the ‘academic’ into academic governance. Academic boards serve as indicators of the changing roles of universities and therefore of the sometimes uncomfortable intersections between academia and management. However, it is this intersection that also offers the greatest potential for transformation, for recognising and finding ways where university governance is enhanced because of academic voice and not in spite of it. This chapter first surveys and critiques existing literature on how academic boards can be ‘improved’.