Academic Governance Research Articles

Academic Governance Model for Internationalization of Public and Private Universities in Albay

Academic Governance Model for Internationalization of Public and Private Universities in Albay

Syllabus as argument in an era of politicized pedagogy

AbstractThe traditional character of higher education in the US is under assault. The broad, intellectual focus on the liberal arts and its concomitant values of academic freedom and academic governance are giving way to an over‐managed vocational institution that prioritizes ambience over integrity and credentialism over citizenship. In this milieu, sociologists should use the classroom as an opportunity to model the explanatory power of the discipline by structuring our syllabi to make a point. I refer to this approach as syllabus‐as‐argument, which I contrast with the traditional organizational logic of syllabus‐as‐survey—configuring a syllabus to provide an overview of a given topic, theme or field. Where the chief criterion of success for the syllabus as survey is comprehensiveness, the syllabus as argument strives for convincingness. I draw from two courses to exemplify this approach. The first is a senior seminar in environmental sociology, which I have reworked into a course explaining the intractability of the climate crisis. The second is a general education course in community sociology that I remade to explain the links between growing inequality and deteriorating democracy in the US.

From vocation to profession: multiple identities of Chinese management academics

The academic landscape in China has undergone a profound transformation, shifting from a spiritually rooted vocation to a model driven by managerial efficiency, catalyzed by market reforms that dismantled the traditional, centrally planned system. This seismic shift has forced scholars to adapt to a performance-oriented environment, leading to significant transformations in their professional identities. Contemporary literature, primarily centered on Western role-theory perspectives, often fails to capture the intricate cognitive dynamics that shape academic identities under the varied influence of power dimensions. This study addresses this gap by exploring how Chinese academics’ identities are constructed amidst a complex interplay of power dynamics, external changes, and internal motivations, moving beyond simplistic group-level categorizations. Employing an intersectional approach within a multidimensional organizational power framework, this research utilizes case study methods to probe deeply into the multiple identities of academics in the Business Management discipline across various Chinese higher education institutions. The study reveals a dynamic interplay among multiple power dimensions, including American research hegemony, industrialization of academic governance, self-regulation, and rebellion against ‘academic games’. These forces collectively shape distinct identity modules among Chinese academics: fanatic convert of American research, career survivor, diligent game player, and career retreater, each responding uniquely to the evolving academic pressures. This research significantly enhances our understanding of academic identity construction by extending beyond traditional role-based analyses to encompass a broader spectrum of cognitive processes. It highlights the nuanced intersectionality of academic identities, effectively integrating structuralist perspectives with personal agency. This comprehensive examination provides critical insights into the development of Management disciplines, university governance, and professional practices within the academic community in China.

The Basic Models and Trends of Academic Governance in European Universities

The Basic Models and Trends of Academic Governance in European Universities

The academic governance body: What’s its role and who decides?

In this essay, I introduce the term governance inversion to describe a situation in which a university administration repositions a governance body in such a way as to limit its legitimate governance function. Structural conditions might make governance inversion more likely, but narratives might also be deployed to make the inversion appear as the common-sense order of things. To illustrate, I examine how a university president has deployed a legalistic narrative to manage the university’s senior academic governance body, General Faculties Council (GFC), and to relegate its role to that of a de facto advisory body, while the president is left free (without any similarly narrow reading of the president’s own role under the governing legislation) to assume the position of the dreamer and mover of the university’s future. This situation raises important questions about who articulates—and who is seen to have the legitimate authority to articulate—the mission, vision, and goals of the public university, as well as whose interests are ultimately being served by governance inversion. I suggest ways in which academic staff might organize so that governance inversion becomes recognizable and so that they might collectively set an inversion aright.

What is Behind the Shine? The Dark Side of Research Evaluation: A Conceptual Framework

Research evaluation (RE) is presently a widely discussed and prominent subject within the academic community. This article provides a conceptual framework that categorizes the dark side of RE and provides strategies to diminish it. At its core, this framework includes a generic model summarizing RE dark effects and anti-dark effects remedies and elucidating their relations. Four research questions were raised regarding the research interest in the dark side of RE, the nature of the dark effects of RE and remedies for them, their literature prominence, and whether it is possible to create a well-founded model for mitigating the dark side of RE. Theoretically, this framework is based on concepts of the philosophy of science. Methodologically, a structured literature review, methods of expert judgment, analysis and synthesis, and a sampler of 35 articles underpin it. Stakeholder and logical approaches were applied for classification. The suggested framework is the first in-depth attempt to elucidate the dark side of RE and how to mitigate it. In practical terms, the framework can be incorporated into university/government RE systems to “enlighten”/control their dark side, thereby improving the academic governance toolkit. It can also be used to develop subject-area/country-specific models for the dark side of RE.

New insights into the trend towards English as a medium of instruction in European higher education through transdisciplinary participation

The drive towards English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in universities in non-English-dominant countries can generate heated debates, yet the drivers of EMI are still not fully understood. This position paper argues for transdisciplinary participation in order to shed new light on the drivers of EMI. Transdisciplinary participation is conceptualized as engaging with theories, methodologies and practices in other disciplines in order to approach a topical issue in a new way. We exemplify transdisciplinary participation as bringing together applied linguists and those involved in academic governance to re-theorize the rise of EMI as linked to steering at a distance governance reforms that have swept across the European higher education sector since the 1980s. Showcasing three cases from across Europe, we argue that steering at a distance may shed new light on the drivers of EMI. At a more general level, we highlight how disciplinary positioning shapes the creation of knowledge.

문화역사적 활동이론 관점에서 마을교육공동체 활동 분석과 활성화 방안

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of creating, continuously growing, and evolving vil-lage schools in Gyeongnam Innovation City. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the activity system of village schools, based on Engestöm's Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and to study the growth and change of village schools which arose from the process of resolving contradictions.
 Methods We conducted a literature research, in-depth interviews, and participant observation, and analyzed the activity system based onEngestöm's Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Two in-depth interviews were conducted first with all village teachers at S village school and secondly with key managers among village teachers.
 Results The results of analyzing the village school's activity system from the perspective of cultural-historical ac-tivity theory are as follows. The five-year activity period of the village school is largely divided into two periods ac-cording to the contradictions and differences of the subject, tool, and object of the activity system. The main con-tradiction came from the difference in the individual situation and activity of the village teachers, and the differ-ence in perception between the village teachers who watched the identity and activity of the village school. The contradictions that appeared in the tool began with the practical difficulties of recruiting students, leading to two conflicting opinions: one to expand to resident participation activities and one to focus on student-centered activities. The contradictions in the community elements were expressed as the community's lack of under-standing of the village school, the absence of governance, and the uncertainty of financial support for the public offering project. The factor that led to the occurrence of expanded learning by overcoming major contradictions was that through continuous formal and informal meetings such as general meetings and teacher learning centers within the village, emotional intimacy was formed between village teachers and relationships expanded, thereby overcoming contradictions and conflicts. It appears that a new activity system has been creatively created.
 Conclusions In the results of this study, the elements necessary for the sustainability of village schools and vital-ization of village educational communities are as follows. First, it is a democratic communication structure and continuity of learning within the members. Second, the direction and activities of the village school can change, and this must be discussed and agreed upon with the village school members. Third, it is necessary to expand the range of contact with residents in the village and to have a network with the community in the village. Finally, it shows the need for the role and support of the Happy Education District and local governments in the formation of public, government, and academic governance for sustainable activities.

Insani’s Human Resource Management in Transforming Private Islamic Universities in Jambi

The goal of this study is to create a representation of several tertiary institutions that are capable of significant transformations. The findings of this field research: 1) Management policies in preparing Insani’s Human Resources (SDI) for the transformation agenda at IAI Muhammad Azim with a focus on HR readiness policies and academic governance policies. The Governance Policy at IAI YASNI applies the principles of Insani’s Human Resource Management (MSDI), namely: shura, musyarakah, al-ujrah, and obedience to leaders, 2) The process of transformation through the practice of MSDI in Private Higher Education IAIMA and IAI YASNI is divided into the process of administrative transition and the process of building a transformative work culture and MSDI, 3) The dynamics in the Implementation of the Transformation Agenda at Private Higher Education in Jambi province run dynamically and continuously through internalization of transformative values and strategic planning and capacity building of higher education SDI, 4) There are several barriers to IAI Muhammad Azim’s transformation program, including a lack of commitment to the organization, a dearth of qualified human resources (tridharma and education and training), acclimatization to new technologies and cultural norms, and opposition to internal change. The following factors are preventing IAI Yasni from implementing its change agenda: compensation restrictions, sincerity, resistance, and conflict of interest between administrators, 5) The accomplishments of the transformation agenda that IAI Muhammad Azim can produce, specifically: adjustments to a new work culture, adjustments to human resources from an Islamic values perspective, and institutional adjustments. A new integrated digitalization-based work culture, quality-based tridharma education, and the construction of a new work culture based on competence and sincerity are all part of IAI Yasni’s transformation plan, and 6) Kopertais as a facilitator and institution that fosters and has internal performance, namely assisting universities in preparing material for changes in status transfer.

Science for sale? Why academic marketization is a problem and what sustainability research can do about it

Scholars have long called out the flaws in academic publishing. However, a nuanced and constructive discussion of this issue is still lacking. We advocate that these flaws are symptoms of broader and intensifying marketization of academic research. To address this, we first discuss the two dimensions of marketization: the commodification of academic output and the ‘managerialization’ of academic governance. We then argue that sustainability research is especially vulnerable to marketization trends because of its broader set of values that cannot merely be reflected in academic output. We illustrate these values by discussing the nature of the challenges faced by sustainability researchers, their relationships with non-academic stakeholders, and the intrinsic normativity of their research. We explore potential ways forward to reform existing academic organizational structures and research funding system, embrace more inclusive and democratic research approaches, and support the development of nonprofit open-access journals.

Collegiality as collective affect: who carries the burden of the labour of attunement?

ABSTRACT Collegiality is at the heart of the academy’s collective endeavour. It is central to how we think about academic governance structures, academic cultures, as well as the norms guiding academic work. This paper examines the less-explored affective dimensions of collegiality, probing the relationship between the collegial affect and the power and hierarchy in modern corporate universities. Three interview accounts describing academic practices in Australian universities are analysed to examine collegiality as academics’ capacity to attune to certain collective affects. This analysis demonstrates how collegial relations can reproduce exclusion in universities. Alternative types of relations that are attentive to differences are then examined, charting possible new directions for a more inclusive academy.

An Instructional-Workforce Framework for Coordinated Change in Undergraduate Education

In Short The work of higher education instructors across many types of positions and institutions has been widely recognized as central to systemic change in undergraduate STEM education, and this work likely plays a strong role in other disciplines. The quality of instruction and other educational practices relates directly to the quality of student learning and to equitable and just outcomes for students. We propose an instructional-workforce framework that aligns and links three levers, key facets of organizations that, when applied appropriately, propel changes: the professional development leading to and throughout instructors’ careers, their roles in academic governance, and the evaluation and reward systems related to their work. This framework provides guidance for change agents and initiatives in departments, schools, institutions, and disciplinary and other organizations, as well as for funding agencies, on how to engage with, support, and seek to improve conditions and practices for and with those who teach undergraduates.

Academic Governance: Insights and the Way Forward

Academic Governance is a concept of managerial, social, and legal significance. This paper tries to understand the reasons behind the selected malpractices in either the managerial/academic areas or functions of educational institutions. It would help to understand the regulatory mechanisms in academia and their roles in the process and execution of the teaching and learning process. It would help the educationists and activists to come up with areas needing revision and reformation in the academic world. It tries to find the causes/factors leading to certain types of governance issues in academia based on three theories such as governance without government, the new public management/governance, and the network governance theories. It tries to bring out the recent insights as reported articles on the subject from open sources and scholarly publications. Content Analysis using PRISMA Protocol is the research design used in writing the results and discussions. Most of the failure reasons/causes are due to the failures of privatization, and network governance failures. Thus this paper would serve the consolidation of where and why such lapses happen and how to curb them.

Multifactor higher education model taking into account the level of emotional intelligence

Introduction and research problem. Determining the criteria for training efficiency or learning outcomes is one of the primary tasks in the analysis of training efficiency. Despite a significant amount of studies on this topic, there are no clear criteria for determining the factors affecting the quality of education. The research purpose is to develop multifactorial higher education models taking into account teachers and students’ emotional intelligence and determine their impact on training efficiency. Materials and methods. More than 800 students from all faculties of the Financial University and more than 100 teachers took part in the study. The dependence of training efficiency on three factors was taken as a basis. Firstly, there are factors related to the educational process (student’s grade-point average (GPA), teacher’s average rating according to the results of the survey “Teacher as Viewed by Students”, etc.). Secondly, socio-cultural factors consisting of indicators of a content-methodological component, a communicative-informational component, a leisure-household component, a creative component, etc. Thirdly, the factors responsible for assessing the emotional intelligence of a student and a teacher. The influence of these factors on students’ performance is statistically analyzed. Two regression models were developed using 375 responses from teachers and students of the Financial University. Results and discussions. Factors that significantly affect the quality of student learning were identified. The resulting indicator is a student’s GPA for the summer examination period of the 2020-2021 academic year (PA_LS) is directly dependent on the following factors: an indicator of decrease in a teacher’s average rating according to the results of the survey “Teacher as Viewed by Students” (IPSGS); an indicator of the content-methodological component (QMC); a student’s GPA on the previous midterm assessment (PA_ZS). PA_LS is inversely related to the emotional intelligence decline indicator (ISEI); the difference between the average value of emotional intelligence of the teachers who taught the students and the emotional intelligence of this student (ROEI); teachers’ average rating based on the results of the survey “Teacher as Viewed by Students” (PGS_2020) and the level of teachers’ emotional intelligence (EI_t_2020). A very high level of significance of the regression equation was obtained, which corresponds to the level of significance α=1.80∙10-75. Moreover, most of the indicated coefficients of the regression equation are significantly different from zero at a significance level of less than 0.05. Conclusions. The study of the influence of teachers and students’ emotional intelligence on training efficiency showed that there is a statistical relationship between them. The developed multifactorial models made it possible to identify the relationship between an increase in students’ knowledge and a teacher’s change, a decrease in his/her emotional intelligence and students’ general emotional intelligence. The degree of influence of the results of the previous examination period on training efficiency was determined, and a slight positive dependence of a grade for current academic performance on the creative component of students’ sociocultural conditions was noted. The use of modeling various components of the educational process on private models using various methods for their development will allow determining the dependences between them and effectively using the results obtained in the management of the educational process. The developed multifactorial higher education models make it possible to assess the existing relationships between teachers and students’ emotional intelligence and various components of the educational process. The obtained modeling results can be directed and effectively used in the academic governance.

The Effectiveness of Using E-Learning Students The University of Lancang Kuning During Covid-19 Using COBIT 5.0

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the spread was very wide, including in Indonesia. This affects the student learning system which changes drastically from face-to-face learning to learning at home. The learning solution implemented is online, including for Lancang Kuning University students. The face-to-face learning system applied by Lancang Kuning University changed during the Covid-19 period into distance learning (online) using E-Learning amid the limitations of the existing infrastructure. After implementing the E-Learning system for Lancang Kuning University student lectures, it is necessary to audit academic governance. This audit was conducted to determine the extent to which the implementation of existing information technology was by the academic needs of the Lancang Kuning University community. Evaluation of E-Learning using COBIT 5.0. 4 domains become standards in the COBIT 5.0 assessment, namely Website Content Feasibility Standards, Website Language Feasibility Standards, Website Presentation Feasibility Standards, and Website Component Aspects. In general, the acquisition of the E-Learning index value at Lancang Kuning University has 4 domains, namely Standard indicating good results by showing the total index value is above 3.85. This means that the level of maturity of the Lancang Kuning University student learning system during the Covid 19 period, using E-Learning obtained the predicate "Satisfactory" referring to the predetermined value range method.

The Satisfactions, Contributions, and Opportunities of Women Academics in the Framework of Sustainable Leadership: A Case Study

Women’s empowerment is one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 5, gender equality. However, little research has highlighted the contributions of sustainable female leadership in academic governance. In order to fill this gap, this study identifies and analyses the satisfactions, opportunities, and contributions of women academics to university governance and their perceptions of the potential impact of gender in this process. Forty-eight women leaders participated in the study. A purposive sampling technique was used because the research involved leaders who had held a management position in the university. The research methodology was qualitative, the instrument used for the collection of information was a semi-structured interview, and the analysis of the narratives was carried out with Aquad v. 7 software (Günter Huber, Tübingen, Alemania). The study revealed that the leadership style of the female academics is framed within the sustainable leadership approach. Beyond personal satisfactions, the main reward derived from the performance of the position lies in becoming transformative and catalysing agents of the institution, who try to find a balance between the economic and social interests of the organisation. The functions these female academics perform, within the framework of sustainable development, have a technical and, at the same time, humanised vision, as they focus on people and on personal and social values. Gender issues have not been a determinant in the satisfactions, opportunities, and contributions that the leaders make to the institution; however, participants emphasise that this was a strength for leadership.

Remote Working and Home Learning: How the Italian Academic Population Dealt with Changes Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced changes in people’s lives that affected their mental health. Our study aimed to explore the level of psychological distress in the academic population during the lockdown period and investigate its association with the new working or studying conditions. The study sample included 9364 students and 2159 employees from five Italian universities from the study IO CONTO 2020. We applied linear regression models to investigate the association between home learning or remote working conditions and psychological distress, separately for students and employees. Psychological distress was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). In both students and employees, higher levels of distress were significantly associated with study/work–family conflicts, concerns about their future careers, and inadequacy of equipment; in employees, higher levels of distress were significantly associated with a lack of clarity on work objectives. Our results are in line with previous research on the impact of spaces and equipment in remote working/studying from home. Moreover, the study contributes to deepening the association between well-being and telework–family conflict, which in the literature is still equivocal. Practical implications require academic governance to promote sustainable environments both in remote and hybrid work conditions, by referring to a specific management by objectives approach.

Academic Labour Process and ‘Identity-Work’ Construction: Liminal Experience of Academics in the University

Academic labour process in the context of neo-liberal Higher Education (HE) management system, specifically the university system, had in recent years evoked multiple and conflicting dimensions for lived-work experiences of academics in the university. Between multiple levels of mundane/routine teaching and learning, and at the extreme of the continuum, i.e. research for knowledge production, and community engagements, occasioned by the dictates of neo-liberal logics, the lived-work experiences and self-identity of academics are constructed. This co-construction illustrates how the work of academics is further embedded in global neo-liberal dynamics, and how this reconstructs the “normalcy” of academic work process, and “self- identity” of academics. Change in normalcy such as the reforms in universities management system, globally , and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, for example, has also deepened challenges facing HE management in terms of funding, governance, and “social mission”. This has further compelled universities to initiate alternatives in managerial practices. This is even more demonstrated along the “contours” of neo-liberal reforms of the universities system, globally. Utilizing the concept of “liminality” in organisational research, the paper demonstrates how the emerging dynamics in neo-liberal university system, including the impact of the pandemic shape the “identity-work”, “subjectitviy” and “agency” of academics, in context. While the paper draws on conceptual-analytics of liminality, it evaluates and examines the “discursive narratives” of academics, in context, during period of uncertainties, such as academic policy reforms, academic governance; illustrating the implications on their identity-work. The paper shows how liminal practices in the academia at a time of reform in the universities’ governance could aid the process of construction and co-construction of identity-work of academics. The on-going co-construction of identity-work in the context of neo-liberal academia has produced “liminal personae” in the university system, even at a time of uncertainty.

Evading Transparency, Doubting Democracy, Dreaming Big: Grassroots Perspectives on Science Governance in Russia

ABSTRACT Global transformation of academia under “new public management” and metrics-based assessment has brought forth intense debates on the governance of science. This study investigates key values and visions of academic governance in Russia through a set of focus groups with scientists plus a nationwide survey (n = 6,166) conducted in 2019. Russian scholars defy both state pressures and grassroots self-governance (due to fundamental distrust of peers); the preservation of privacy is their key concern. Finally, we present basic self-images of science (competitive, cooperative, and mobilizational) and point out the tensions between liberalism and democracy in post-Soviet academia.

Valuation Ecologies and Academic Governance

University managers are forced to assume responsibility for more and more aspects of academic life. This essay focuses on academic publishing and how deans and department heads attempt to manage the volume and quality of publications at their university because others, including politicians and scholars, rate the quality and effectiveness of the university on their publication output. How managers assume and practice this responsibility for academic publishing may seem self-evident but proves to hide both paradoxes and loopholes. Reflections build on an empirical illustration derived from the adoption of a conventional publication strategy. The implementation of this strategy is fueled by a large dose of strategic expediency. However, such expediency incurs costs related to impression management when managers need to show a sense of command in response to a disappointing performance. Both material costs (time and money) and symbolic costs (demonstrating allegiance to an embarrassingly naive conception of academia) are incurred. Exactly because management is exercised on the premise of an embarrassingly naive conception of academia, the presumed coercive forces are exceedingly loose and ineffective. The room for value judgment at all levels of the university organization is not closed but rather enshrined (for good or bad) behind a façade of objectivity and factuality.