Ebook: Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance

Over the last decades higher education has gone through an unprecedented growth period, and as a result the average university or college has now more students and a larger output than ever before. At the same time, the socio-economic and political demands with respect to higher education have grown dramatically. These developments have taken place without a proportional increase of the budgets and facilities of the higher education institutions. This has created an imbalance between the expectations with respect to higher education and the institutional capacities in the sector. One of the underlying trends is that the traditional pact between higher education and society has become problematic. Society no longer accepts the rather special and protected position that universities have had for a very long time in our societies. The knowledge-based social and cultural missions of higher education institutions are no longer taken for granted as the main legitimacy bases for public investments in higher education. Universities and colleges are at present expected to function efficiently, to contribute to sustainable economic growth at various levels, and to add to national and even supranational trade balances. On top of this they have to prove that they maintain a high level of quality in their primary activities, i. e. teaching, research and services, while adapting and responding to the expectations expressed so vehemently in their environments, and to a decreasing per capita funding basis.

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The most comprehensive international discussion of higher education governance ever published, this volume presents a critical analysis of governance issues and reforms in nine countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The authors share a common view that higher education governance has become an important issue as systems and institutions struggle to deal with new external and internal demands, but each chapter presents a unique perspective in the analysis of national systems and recent reforms. The book draws together many of the leading international scholars in higher education to explore different theoretical perspectives and present new empirical evidence on system and institutional governance issues. In the concluding chapter, the common things emerging from these national perspectives are presented and analysed, and an agenda for future research is discussed.