Abstract
Finnish higher education consists of research-oriented universities and teaching-oriented universities of applied sciences, and both sectors have a role in research, development and innovation. This paper focuses on governance and management at the institutional and academic unit levels, based on responses to several questions in the APIKS survey regarding the influence of academics, performance targets of academic units and the influence of academics in decision making and workload. Institutions in both sectors of Finnish higher education emphasise strategies and are heavily reliant on public funding. Both sectors also have an orientation to strong performance management.
Highlights
Finland has an extensive network of higher education institutions, comprising universities and universities of applied sciences
The focus in this paper is on governance and management at the institutional and academic unit level based on responses to several questions in the Academic Profession in Knowledge-based Society (APIKS) survey regarding the influence of academics, performance targets of academic units and the influence of academics in decision making and workload
Our research question is what are the expectations for governance and management practices in the two university sectors? We addressed this research question with two hypotheses, first, that expectations of the governance model vary at academics’ different career stages; and second, that expectations of management practices are different in each higher education sector
Summary
Finland has an extensive network of higher education institutions, comprising universities and universities of applied sciences. The structural reforms and mergers in higher education changed practices in a direction where performance management has been emphasised These pressures in higher education institutions are internal and external (Söderlind et al, 2019). Key reforms concerning the Finnish academic profession in the 21st century have been that universities’ status removed from the state administration in 2010 and the fourtier career model was introduced in the university sector for the academic profession (Aarrevaara et al, 2010) In this respect, Finland has followed OECD reports and recommendation and European Union regulations (OECD, 2020; OECD 2015; Kivistö et al, 2015; Diogo 2015). Universities of applied sciences were under the control of local government authorities up until 2013 and since they established themselves as limited companies as the organisation model Funding arrangements for both higher education sectors were documented in the government’s funding models. In the Changing Academy Profession study in 2008, UASs were found to have tighter management practices than universities (Aarrevaara et al, 2011)
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