Higher Education Governance Research Articles

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF GOOD GOVERNANCE, ORGANIZATIONAL CUL TURE, AND PERFORMANCE AT HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDONESIA

The quality of human resources is determined by the learning process in educational institutions, especially higher education. In Indonesia, the process of managing education in higher education is regulated in Act no. 12/2012. The quality of higher education can be determined by aspects of governance and organizational culture that exists in the organization. A good governance and culture can support the performance of educational institutions. This research aims to postulate conceptual framework from good governance to organizational culture and from organizational culture to organizational performance, especially in higher education in Indonesia. This conceptual framework has not been widely discussed by other researchers. We hope that the results of this study can shed more light on further research to prove empirically the conceptual framework of good governance in higher education.

Фундаментальні цінності європейського простору вищої освіти (2010 – 2018 рр.): пріоритетні орієнтири діяльності науково-педагогічних працівників

The article enlightens that the rapid pace of transformational changes, which are inherent in a globalized world, during the twenty years of the Bologna process launching led to the expansion of its value space coordinate system and increase in the tools of fundamental values of higher education approval and implementation among the participating countries and European organizations. It is grounded that during the Bologna process and EHEA development to the list of fundamental values (academic freedom, institutional autonomy, indivisibility of teaching and research, preservation of the European humanism traditions) were added: state responsibility for higher education system, involvement of students and academic staff in the governance of higher education, following the academic integrity, democracy, human rights, higher education quality assessment, mobility, inclusiveness, etc. taking into account the national legislative frameworks. It is presented that an important step towards strengthening fundamental values is the establishment of the European Higher Education Area and European Research Area, as well as their consolidation in the near future. The EHEA and ERA creation in the Bologna process system led to the development of the higher education institution’s development strategy, in particular defining its mission, vision, aim, etc., where values are the main basis and guide for institution and society in general and also for academic staff. The university’s academic staff are obliged to identify themselves with the institution’s values, be their carriers in the students’ environment and society, be active their «transmitters». The main value principles implementation in higher education not only consolidates the Bologna process participating countries, but also ensures the implementation of the EHEA and ERA strategies globally and their distribution in the world.

The current state of data governance in higher education

ABSTRACTRecent developments in big data have heightened the need for data governance in any organization. There has been a growing interest and recognition of the importance of data governance in higher education. While multiple research efforts focus on a literature‐based approach to conceptualize data governance, evidence‐based research on this topic can scarcely be found. Higher education institutes are facing similar challenges in aligning their information technology (IT) efforts with business processes to meet organizational goals. This study aims to address such a research gap and investigates the status quo of data governance practice across tier one universities in the United States. Using Web content analysis, this paper sought to obtain empirical evidence of data governance initiatives, the extent of data governance, and its relationship with IT governance and information governance across a sample of 30 tier one university websites. Results of this study revealed that most of the universities created a new data governance unit with different labels (e.g., data governance, institutional research, or data management/analytics), while some universities extended IT governance or information governance to data governance. These findings shed light on the potential directions of developing data governance initiatives in higher education.

The Changing Trends in University Governance in Malaysia: Issues and Challenges

Society has undergone massive changes in its socioeconomic and cultural facets. Thus the concept of knowledge society has got momentum with it, with education being a key motivator of these changes. Following the introduction of the “Wawasan 2020” (Vision 2020) and the subsequent declaration of the Transformasi Nasional (TN50) policy, increasing attention has been made in the effort to change the structure of higher education governance in Malaysia (Dzulkifli, 2011). The ongoing reforms in University governance are driven by the notion that Malaysia aims to set themselves up as a central node for better education in the region (Quddus & Ahmad, 2015) and as a nation aims to transform into “a nation of calibre, with a new mindset” (New Straits Times, Online - 21 October, 2016). As a nation, Malaysia also wants to be fully developed in terms of economic development, ensuring social justice, a system of good governance, quality of life and to uphold social and spiritual values, political stability, national pride, confidence, unity and social cohesion in the polity (“The Way Forward—Vision 2020” speech delivered by Dr Tun Mahathir, Source: http://www.epu.jpm.my/ 02/28/1991). This paper explores whether these particular reform initiatives introduced in relation to higher education management would help to achieve the declared objectives of the government of Malaysia. In analysing the impact of reform initiatives on the production of knowledge in Malaysia, and across the globe, this paper has explored the answers of the following questions: a) What are the major changing trends of higher education governance in Malaysia; b) How current reform initiatives relating to university governance will affect the “soaring upwards” motto of the government i.e. the ministry of higher education; c) what are the current challenges of university governance in Malaysia and how to resolve them. The findings of this study reveal that there are many innovative programs and policies relating to higher education management in Malaysia, however some of them are not supportive of and to some extent even contradict the objectives of the government and society at large.

Institutional Climate and Faculty Governance in Higher Education: A Shift from Capitalist to Shared Governance Models

Campus and institutional climate is a key measure of success for academic institutions. Higher education leaders serve in their positions, on average, less than 6 years, with a steady decline in this tenure over the past 20 years. This study aims to focus on the relationships and institutional climate between university faculty and university administrators as they apply to faculty governance. This study uses a qualitative case study method, in which 6 faculty members within the College of Engineering at a Northwestern United States university (referred to by the pseudonym State University) are interviewed to gain perspectives on their perceptions of these relationships. The guiding question for this case study is: What are the things that build trust between faculty and administrators that create a healthy collegial academic environment? The goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of specific themes that are shown to promote a healthy and positive institutional climate at the faculty and administrative levels which contribute to a healthy shared faculty governance structure as an alternative to the current capitalist governance model. An exploration of faculty governance is a key theme to this research.

Between world culture and local context

World society theory argues that actor empowerment in local contexts is driven primarily by the expanding world culture, rendering alternative explanations weaker in comparison. This article explores one such alternative explanation and offers an account of actor empowerment which highlights the role of identity constructed in local interaction. The article imports insights from identity theory to show how identities constructed in interaction may complement those derived from the world culture. To explore the phenomenon of theoretical interest, the case of a historical empowerment of Serbian universities in the post-2000 period, as an actor in the national higher education governance, is considered.

Comparing the Open University Systems of China and India: Origins, Developments and Prospects

The national open universities of China and India are unique adaptations of the open university model that emanated from the UK. These institutions have expanded to become the largest universities in the world as measured by current enrollment of approximately four million each. This article comparatively analyzes how these open universities have differentiated themselves from the open university model and from each other amidst similarities of outcome and differences of approach. Historical contexts, national governance of higher education, institutional administration, curriculum and international operations are the foci of analysis. The article contributes to the literature on national and local forces that shape higher education systems and aims to spur collaborations between the institutions in question for mutual benefit.

Determinants of student participation in higher education governance: the case of student turnout in academic senate elections in Czechia

Student participation in higher education governance is low in most countries. This is puzzling especially in countries like Czechia that have established radically democratic academic structures open to student involvement. This article therefore seeks to explain the determinants of student turnout (an important form of student participation) in elections to academic senates. It does so by weaving together two strands of literature that hardly ever communicate: the political science research on electoral turnout and the education research on student involvement in academic governance. After developing a theoretical model of student turnout the article provides the first systematic test of the determinants of turnout in elections to non-political offices using unique data from Czech faculties at public universities. Standard rational choice model of turnout developed for elections to political offices was found to be appropriate for explaining student turnout. Institutional prescriptions to increase student participation are discussed.

Representation and conflict of interest among students on higher education governing boards

ABSTRACTStudent participation in higher education governance is commonplace in many countries around the globe. This participation can take many forms, but one prevalent form is through the inclusion of students as members of institutional governing boards, commonly called student trustees. This practice is not without critique with governance scholars often cautioning against student board membership. They cite the potential for student members to engage in representative behaviour, which may lead them to focus primarily on student issues or cast votes which may be in the best interest of themselves or their fellow students as the primary objection to student board members. This study of student trustees in the United States examines the extent to which these individuals engage in such behaviours, examining interactions between student board members and students at their institutions for signs of whether these oft states concerns have a basis in practice.

After globalisation: A reconceptualisation of transnational Higher Education governance in Singapore and Hong Kong

AbstractResearch on transnational Higher Education governance has provided a thesis explaining how East Asian states have successfully selectively blended elements of globalisation in Higher Education with their pre‐existing regulatory regimes. However, this paper argues that the thesis overlooks the significance of local politics in understanding the formulation of Higher Education policy, thus insufficiently acknowledging the indeterminacy that arises in the globalisation process. To address this argument, this paper examines the transnational Higher Education development in Singapore and Hong Kong and explains how political resistance and corresponding policy changes that emerged in these two societies help reconceptualise transnational Higher Education governance.

Brexit, Higher Education, and Responsible Governance

Brexit, Higher Education, and Responsible Governance

Policy design spaces in reforming governance in higher education: the dynamics in Italy and the Netherlands

Governments continuously design and redesign higher education policies, and governmental capacities are the pillars for undertaking these tasks during the formulation stage. This paper considers the assumption that different governmental political and technical capacities shape different spaces for action and thus different types of policy design. The usefulness of this theoretical perspective is tested by comparing the dynamics of the policy designs that have been pursued in higher education in Italy and the Netherlands over the past 25 years.

University governance in China and Japan: Major findings from national surveys

This paper identifies the main characteristics of the governance styles of four-year universities in China and Japan, based on findings from a cross-national academic survey conducted using a common questionnaire in 2011–2012. The study reveals that, although changes have occurred in the governance arrangements of universities in both countries under the influence of the new public management, entrepreneurialism, and other factors, the two case studies suggest while reforms in each country share some features in common with many systems, the two national systems embody two distinctive patterns of governance. From an international and comparative perspective, China is more characterized by a top-down style while Japan is more concerned with a bottom-up one. In contrast with Japan, the basic character of governance style in China has not been fundamentally changed. Neither the common nor the specific issues concerning governance of higher education in the two countries can be satisfactorily explained simply in terms of the numerical expansion of higher education enrollment as discussed by Trow, or other generic notions in the research literature. Rather, the specificities of each country, and the differences between them, must be explained in terms of the academic origins, traditions, cultural values, and especially the current political and social systems of China and Japan.

Towards a university of Halbbildung: How the neoliberal mode of higher education governance in Europe is half-educating students for a misleading future

Responding to the structural and discursive changes that have (re)shaped the area of higher education in Europe over the last decades, the paper presents an analysis of how and with what educational consequences the purpose and value of higher education governance has shifted towards market-relevance and impact as the primary legitimizing factors in institutional quality assessments. The style will be asyndetic: rather than focus on single policy-documents, I purport to avail the justifications of the recent decades’ higher education policy through highlighting the use of specific words and certain arguments across a range of documents from the most prominent transnational actors and educational policy-makers in the field. Applying Theodor Adorno’s theory of Halbbildung (half-education), I go on to present the notion of Halbbildung as a conceptual lens for unveiling some of the teleological issues at stake in the current proposed purposes and modes of higher education governance. Paraphrasing Adorno’s call for commitment to educational authorities, I question the possibility of establishing commitment amongst students to something beyond the logics of applicable competence-building and productivity.

Higher education governance in Central and Eastern Europe: A perspective on Hungary and Poland

This paper seeks to answer the question of what motivates governments to introduce and implement reforms in higher education (HE). The political and economic reasons why some governments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), for the period 1990 and 2015, have invested resources in order to facilitate cooperation between employers and universities, and have introduced quality criteria in HE finance while others have not, are identified. Use of a comparative perspective on Poland and Hungary revealed important differences in HE regulations in these seemingly otherwise very similar cases, showing that what drives regulations, at least in part, is the governments’ responses to the labour market, i.e. the dynamic between students – future workers – and employers – largely multinational companies. Moreover, differences in HE regulations in the two countries are responsive to voters’ concerns. The paper thus contributes to the literature on skill formation in Central and Eastern Europe and to the literature on political economy focusing on this part of the world.

Exploring higher education governance in Poland and Romania: Re-convergence after divergence?

This analysis focuses on changes in higher education governance in Poland and Romania in the post-communist era. The author applies a theoretical framework based on institutional isomorphism and historical institutionalism and maps the policy trajectories of both systems on the basis of three governance ideal-types. The public higher education systems of both countries initially took a markedly different reform path after 1989. Polish higher education by and large returned to its historical model of ‘academic self-rule’ and has resisted pressures for stronger marketization, even during the Bologna Process, while Romania has been characterized by an early and strong isomorphic orientation towards higher education models primarily of Anglo-American inspiration. The main argument of the paper is that – after a period of marked divergence – both systems are visibly ‘re-converging’ towards a new hybrid governance model. The new governance model aims to (re-)embed the research mission of universities to foster homegrown research and innovations. These new hybrid constellations enable both countries to simultaneously deal with global pressures for change and liberate themselves from economic dependence on the West, while not throwing historical institutions entirely overboard.

Student Protests. Three Periods of University Governance

Exploring the idea of student protests as an autonomous object of research and discussion, this paper leads to the understanding that the transforming role of the university and its governance defines the possibilities for the political role of students. In this perspective, there is a particular constellation of the different forms of higher education governance that provides students with the right and even the responsibility of protesting as politically engaged citizens of the university and of the state. Approaching the transformation of the models of university governance as a set of archaeologically organised states this paper identifies the sequential roles provided to the students and the meaning of their protests and demonstrations. After visiting some antecedents of more contemporaneous student movements and protests, this paper focuses on the UK to explore three manifestations of university governance that can be roughly differentiated as the enduring democratic period that extends from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, the globalisation period that extends from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s and as the post-millennial turn. These periods, embodying three different styles of governance of higher education, not only demonstrate conformity with the political and economic contexts in which they are embeded, they also correspond to particular socio-technological and communicative ecosystems and determine the specificities of the role of the students and their capacity for political action.

Quality assurance and the shift towards private governance in higher education: Europeanisation through the back door?

ABSTRACTThis contribution focuses on quality assurance (QA) agencies in the sphere of higher education. It develops a theoretical framework that interrelates systems theory with Gramsci's theory of hegemony with a view to situating this new control of universities in the broader context of a further differentiation of society and emerging heterarchical modes of governance. A closer study of the emerging European market of QA agencies highlights the European dimension of this differentiation and the role of the market in advancing a variable geometry in the context of the European Higher Education Area.

Hybridization and higher education governance in Hong Kong

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the relevance of hybridization to the development of higher education (HE) governance in Hong Kong. It begins by briefly reviewing conceptual issues about HE governance. Based on these conceptual elements, an analytical framework is then proposed to understand the institutional balance of power in university systems and the cultural equilibrium in the academia. Afterwards, an overview of the key features of HE governance in Hong Kong is presented. Three controversial incidents involving the individual academic freedom and institutional autonomy of universities that occurred in Hong Kong after 1997 are also studied. Given that these incidents are linked with the social and political changes in postcolonial Hong Kong, the controversial incidents and associated confrontations in the university sector are regarded as signals of an ongoing hybridization process in the city. Such a process indicates a continued East–West cultural divide in the arenas of HE governance and academic culture.

The pendulum strikes back? An analysis of the evolution of Hungarian higher education governance and organisational structures since the 1980s

Higher education in Central Europe has been scrutinised from many different perspectives during the last 30 years. In our analysis, we focus solely on Hungary and specifically on two key areas: governance and organisational structure. Using an analytical model proposed by Leisyte (2014), we analyse how the governance and organisational structure of institutions have changed between 1985 and 2015, and consider what the driving forces might be behind these changes. Through our analysis, we found that the pendulum effect observed in organisational culture and leadership in Eastern Europe (Bakacsi, 2014) in periods of transition could also be identified in the governance models in Hungary. Despite evidence of a convergence of higher education policies in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic (Dobbins, 2011) towards the market-type model of higher education governance, we found that in Hungary the model is much more state-controlled and there is already an apparent move away from foreign-inspired ideals and models. It is suggested that Hungary is ahead of the apparent trend in other countries where they have yet to experience a swing in the opposite direction.