7th International Workshop on Higher Education Reform October 7-8, 2010 Vancouver, BC Organized by the Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training at St. John’s College, the University of British Columbia
Reform of University Governance – Trends, Policies, Fads, and Experience in Comparative Perspective
The Problem
Since the early 13th century, university teachers have claimed to be natural governors of their institutions. But there have been other groups and agents, especially the state, the church, students, and staff and the rising commercial classes, who have claimed governance should be exercised by them, or shared with them. Since about 1970, the discussion has taken a new turn. The “problem” of university governance is no longer just about who should be in charge. Instead, the question has become how the university can efficiently carry out its functions, including professional development and research for industrial and for commercially viable innovation.
The new fascination with products and the commercial value of research, coupled with the rise of neo-liberal ‘new public management’ in the public sector more generally, has led to the rise of a managerial class in the university.
There is new pressure on academic researchers and teachers by corporate agents and by government bureaucrats. Meanwhile increased emphasis on research measurable outcomes has affected what universities do and how they do it. All of this has changed the way universities are ‘run’, organized, governed, and controlled.
Together with the rise of “new management,” the widespread use of business models and market principles since the late 1970s has undermined the autonomy of the professoriate. It has also weakened the role of traditional collegial governance through academic senates, faculty councils, department meetings, and the like. These developments have been criticized as “fads” (Birnbaum, 2001) not applicable to university.
Proponents of recent reforms argue the modern university is too complex, funding required for large-scale research too great, and the requirements of accountability for funds too demanding—all of which mean that part-time academic leadership and governance will no longer do.
Have the traditional forms of university self governance been rendered irrelevant and impotent in 2010? If they have, does this matter? If so, what, if anything, should be done in order to recover principled and collegiate governance in the university? What value has the argument that the traditional collegiate system was undemocratic, considering that only tenured and senior professors were entitled to participate in the decision-making process, even as non-tenured research and teaching staff, and non-academic staff and students, had no say whatsoever?
Reference: Birnbaum, R. (2001). Management fads in higher education – Where they come from, what they do, why they fail. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Themes of the Workshop
The workshop will discuss these and related topics in a comparative perspective. Contributions are especially invited on–
1. Theoretical perspectives on changes in university governance
2. Changing relationships between the state and universities and their consequences for governance (concerns primarily continental Europe and Japan)
3. Market or quasi-market mechanisms in the management of higher education systems and institutions
4. The effect of governance reforms on collective decision making
5. Collective bargaining and governance
6. Autonomy, governance, and public and private sources of funding
7. New funding patterns and procedures and their effects on academics and academic work.
If there is space in the program, other areas of higher education policy and reform will be considered. Call for Papers & Panels Papers and panels are invited to address these or other, related themes. Proposals of up to 400 words (for papers) and 800 words (for panels) should be received per electronic mail (file transfer) by or before May 31, 2010 to the Workshop co-chairs via the *Workshop Coordinator (see below).
Presenters will be notified by June 14 at the latest if their proposal(s) has/have been accepted.
Workshop organization
This workshop is the seventh International Workshop on University Reform bringing together researchers and policy analysts and makers. Previous workshops have taken place in Vancouver (University of British Columbia), Vienna (University of Klagenfurt), Tokyo (University of Tsukuba), Dublin (Dublin City University), Shanghai (East China Normal University), and Mexico City (Center for Research and Advanced Studies – Department of Educational Research [DIE]).
The 2010 workshop will be organized by the Center for Policies in Higher Education and Training [CHET] at the UBC, organizer of the first of these Workshops.
International Advisory Committee: Professor Germán Alvarez Mendiola, DIE , Mexico Professor Maria Slowey, Dublin City University, Ireland Professor Andrä Wolter, Technical University of Dresden, Germany Professor Shinichi Yamamoto, Hiroshima University, Japan
Local Organization Committee: Maxine Adam, M.Ed., *Workshop Coordinator ([email protected]) Professor William Bruneau, University of British Columbia, Canada (co-chair) Professor Hans G. Schuetze, University of British Columbia, Canada (co-chair) Secretariat: Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training (CHET) University of British Columbia 2124 Main Mall Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 Joanne O’Connor [email protected] Senior Program Assistant/Event Coordinator