Governance and Change in Higher Education MPhil in Higher Education Module 2 Unit 1 Oslo, 13 March 2006

State and Higher Education Why state interference? - Social - Political - Economic

Governance : -Supra-national -System level -Intra institutional governance

Governance refers to the efforts of governments to affect (regulate, steer, coordinate, control) the behaviour of citizens and organizations in society In order to be able to affect society governments set up institutions and develop ‘steering capacity’

Search for ‘better’ government Dissatisfaction with traditional governance model, introduction of alternative models What are the characteristics of the traditional model and why the dissatisfaction?

1. Reaction to strong belief in ‘makeability’ of society, and the capacity of governments to actually steer social behavior (1960s) 2. Increasing social/political heterogeneity in society. Individualization, erosion of collective social identities 3. Internationalization, Europeanization, globalization (free trade agreements) 4. Destabilization of traditional governmental institutions, e.g. welfare state institutions 5. Economization of societies Why dissatisfaction? Why feeling of decreased effectiveness of traditional model?

Governance (or state/steering) models : -Sovereign/central planning/collectivist state -Corporate/pluralist state -Institutional state -Supermarket/self regulation/ individual economic state

Governance (or state/steering) models : -Traditional versus Modern -Ideological versus Pragmatic -General versus Specific Replacement or Blurring boundaries? Adding complexities? Learning/Monitoring?

Governance : System level -Diagnosis -Structure -Policy -Management -Public interest

State and the University State Changes; how does that affect the University/HE?

CHANGE in Higher Education

About 85 institutions in the Western World established by 1520 still exist in recognizable forms, with similar functions and with unbroken histories, Including the Catholic Church, the Parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland and of Great Britain, several Swiss cantons, and 70 universities (Clark Kerr 1982)

A University must be sufficiently stable to sustain the ideal which gave it birth and sufficiently responsive to remain relevant to the society which supports it (Eric Ashby 1966)

We need to distinguish between incremental change and reforms within fairly stable organizational and normative frames, and change and reforms where the legitimacy of an institution’s mission, organization, functioning, moral foundation, way of thought and resources are thrown into doubt and challenged (Olsen 2005)

Arguably, the University now faces a situation in which its institutional structures and their associated systems of normative and causal beliefs and resources are debated if not doubted, leading in many cases to efforts to de-institutionalize them.

Internal vs External Clark’s 4 Sources of Belief Horizontal vs Vertical Sources of change in HEIs

Definitions of public policies emphasize that pp are expected - To have a purposive character - To be related to societal problems Important: symbolic character of pp

Stages approach to policy Policy making/formation 1.Policy problems 2.Policy Objectives 3.Normative basis Policy implementation 1.Policy instruments 2.Policy linkage

Main policy instruments with respect to HE: 1. Funding 2. Law 3. Information 4. Organization

Main potential areas of state intervention in higher education: 1.Access to Higher Education 2.Administration, accountability, governance 3.Higher Education (and research) quality 4.Higher Education landscape 5.Costs of Higher Education 6.Economic and social relevance of higher education

Differences between Higher Education and other public policy objects 1.Basic characteristics of HE (Clark) 2.Tradition 3.Level of institutionalization 4.Costs 5.Hybrid character 6.Shifting balance between stability and responsiveness