Higher Education as a System and Governance · Governance and leadership in Higher Education Focus...

Higher Education as a System and

Governance

Prof Urmilla Bob

INSPIRING GREATNESS!

Global context

… It’s tragic because, by my reading, should we

fail to radically change our approach to

education, the same cohort we’re attempting to

‘protect’ could find that their entire future is

scuttled by out timidity.

(David Puttman, 2012 cited in Barber et al., 2013 – An Avalanche is

Coming: Higher Education and the Revolution Ahead)

What are the key drivers influencing Higher

Education environments? Changing global environment (including economic and socio-

political aspects)

Globalization (Altbach, 2010)

Global knowledge economy

Internationalization

Massification of higher education

Changing policy and regulatory environments (Du Toit, 2013)

Cost of higher education

Quality of education

‘Information explosion’ – questions on quality and relevance

Centrality of building research capacity – not an option any

longer

Innovation and applied-orientation

Transformation, redress, equity and access (

Governance and leadership in Higher Education

Focus on relationships between higher education, the state

and society

Power dynamics and shifts

Changing Higher Education landscape

Traditional universities

Distance learning

Corporate universities

Constantly adapting

Institutional autonomy and public accountability

Higher education as a public or private good?

Proactive and innovative

Sustainable

Taking responsibility

Inclusion of stakeholders as decision-makers

Key governance and leadership issues

Notions of what is a university and rethinking ideas of

knowledge

Re-norming of the academic profession

Strategic orientation and organizational culture

University restructuring

Management and leadership styles

Change management

Political and demographic changes

Technological changes and advancements

Dealing with major change moments or disruptions eg. mergers,

protests, technology, etc.

Managing risk

Student and staff mobility

Heightened competition

Good governance principles

Accountability

Transparency

Consensus-orientated and participatory

Efficiency and effectiveness

Responsiveness

Visionary and strategic (anticpate future issues and plan

accordingly)

Rule of law

Equity and inclusivity

Emergence of the evaluative state (CHE, 2016)

Dominant governance styles and characteristics

Hierarchical and top-down, bottom-up vs matrix management

Rigid and policy-driven

Inadequate and inefficient systems

Decision-making processes

Bureaucratic

Slow

Indecisive

Checks and balances (lack of trust)

Highly regulated – influence of government

How to govern complex institutions eg. UKZN and the College

model?

Dealing with governance breakdown, corruption,

maladministration and mismanagement

Dominant governance styles and characteristics

in South Africa (CHE, 2016)

Diverse stakeholders and beneficiaries

Staff – academic versus professional

Students

Government

Communities

Funders/ sponsors

Are institutions be responsive (adapting to changing contexts

and environments) and responsible (broader long-term

interests)?

Student and staff-related issues

Diverse student and staff bodies

Who are our students and what are their experiences

(education and emancipation project findings)?

Personal responsibilities

Financial challenges

University support/ guidance

Decolonization and transformation

Language issues

Student protests

Discrimination and abuse

Governance and representation

Marginalization and expectations

South African context:

National Development Plan (2013: 317)

‘The data on the quality of university education is disturbing.

South African universities are mid-level performers in terms of

knowledge production, with low participation, high attrition

rates and insufficient capacity to produce the required levels of

skills. They are still characterised by historical inequities and

distortions. The university sector is under considerable strain.

Enrolments have almost doubled in 18 years yet the funding

has not kept up, resulting in slow growth in the number of

university lecturers, inadequate student accommodation,

creaking university infrastructure and equipment shortages.

The number of institutions that have recently been put under

administration is an indication of the leadership and

governance challenges.’

Key challenges to meet targets

• Overcrowding and poor quality provision

• Resources and funding (postgraduate

research costs money)

• Lack of supervision capacity

• Student support and incentives

• Throughput rates

Declining value for money of a degree

(U.S. Department of Education, 2010)

Number of articles published in last 300

years (Jinha, 2010)

Year Academic articles published per year

1726 344

1750 699

1800 3,066

1850 13,439

1900 58,916

1950 258,284

2000 1,132,291

2009 1,477,383

African trends in Higher Education

• Demand for Higher Education increasing (increase in

student-staff ratios)

• Levels of Higher Education provision among the lowest in

the world

– Eg. the SADC region is projected to achieve a 16.3% Higher

Education enrolment rate by 2050, compared with the current global

gross tertiary enrolment rate of 30%

• Increased demand has not been met with increased funding

• Challenges specifically in the Science and Technology

disciplines

• ‘Brain drain’ – challenge to develop and retain academic

staff

• Unqualified staff (many completing postgraduate studies

themselves)Source: Kotecha (2012) - CEO, Southern Africa Regional Universities

Association

African trends in Higher Education

• Low throughputs and high drop-out

• Poor infrastructure and ICT

• Focus on strengthening investments in postgraduate

education and increasing postgraduate throughput

– Concerns in the literature on ‘massification’ of postgraduate studies

• Increase mobility of staff and students

– Trends in internationalisation

• Strengthening regional and institutional cooperation and

collaboration

• Innovation in flexible learning and sharing good practice

• Proliferation of private institutions

Source: Kotecha (2012) - CEO, Southern Africa Regional Universities Association

STUDENT AND STAFF GROWTH (Tettey, nd)

Number of Higher Education institutions in SADC

(Wilson-Strydom and Fongwa, 2010)

South Africa as an illustrative example

• National Development Plan targets

– 75% of academics should have a PhD (currently 36% in a

highly differentiated system

– Increase university enrolements from 1 million to 1.6 million by

2030

– 100 000 PhDs by 2030 (pipeline Masters programmes)

• Current rate: 1 800 PhDs in 2013

• Need to train 6 000 PhDs per year to meet target

• Need an additional R5.8 billion a year to meet target)

• HEI institutional context

– High reliance on state funding (importance of postgraduate

success rates and publications)

– Limited and unequal academic and leadership capacity

South Africa Post-School System (Cloete et al.)

Expenditure on Higher Education as a % of

GDP for selected countries (Cloete et al.)

South Africa student enrolement (DHET)

Headcount enrolments per qualification level from 2006-

2011 in South Africa (Council for Higher Education, 2013)

PhD graduates per million of the population: 1990-2014

(SCISTIP report, 2016)

Changing demographics of researchers who are publishing

(SCISTIP report, 2016)

1990 1998 2014

% of scientific papers published by

female authors10% 20% 32%

% scientific papers published by

black authors3.5% 10% 32%

% scientific papers published by

authors above the age of 5018% 45% 45%

Key aspects in relation to governance

Diverse higher education contexts

Multiple stakeholder with multiple agendas and

interests

Contestation and conflict

Resource allocation and budgeting

Key income streams

Student fees

Subsidies (student enrolments, graduated students, research

outputs, etc.)

Grants (infrastructure, development, research, etc.)

Donors

Third stream income (contracts)

High levels of differences discernible (types of outputs,

levels, disciplines/ fields)

Resource allocation models – how best to

distribute resources

Increased prominence of incentivizing research

Result impact – differences and inequalities that

tend to increase over time

University costs increasing

Increased demands (student numbers increasing)

Infrastructure and maintenance

Increasing research costs

Decreasing public funding

University debt

Mismanagement of funds

Resource allocation and budgeting cont.

Dominance of state funding

Relationships between the state and universities

Impact on university autonomy

Influence on performance management and promotions

Focus on financial sustainability imperatives

Importance of monitoring productivity (‘bean counting’)

Social, personal and professional costs and benefits

Challenges identified

Quality versus quantity

Reinforces inequalities (racial and gender biases in

particular, among universities as well)

Discourages collaboration and creativity/ innovation –

individualism

Capacity-building

Examples of conceptual underpinning

to explain funding dominance in

higher education

• Entrepreneur paradigm: increasing recognition and

institutionalization (in terms of career advancement

and funding) of commercialization in higher

education – the business model

• Performance-based funding model – focus of

incentivization systems and funding allocation

approaches in the Higher Education sector

• Lam’s categorization of academic scientists’

motivations: financial (gold), reputational/ career

(ribbon) and intrinsic rewards (puzzle)

What do we value and the implications

thereof? Research Publications Outputs

as an illustrative example

• Peer reviewed publications

• DHet accredited publications

• Spread in national and international journals

• Focused research and scholarship

• Impact factors and citations (including book

reviews, assessor and reviewer reports, etc.)

of individual publication and journal

Total HE research output (subsidy units): 1987-2013

Source: Mouton, 2015

UKZN research output by type (2005 – 2013)

859.3

977.8

793.5

917.36

1033.93 1030.48

1152.2

1325.12

1489.78

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Articles Books Proceedings

Source: Mouton, 2015

UKZN’s production of Research Masters

and Doctoral graduates (2005 – 2013)

364.31348.44

330.54364.84

443.40 437.34

480.43

532.26

614.29

98 108 106136

159 163 154177

207

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Research Masters Doctorates

Source: Mouton, 2015

University rankings: driving incentives? Where is

teaching and learning as well as community outreach?

Times Higher Education QS Top Universities ARWU

• Teaching (30%)

• Research: volume,

income and reputation

(30%)

• Citations: research

influence (30%)

• Industry income –

innovation (2.5%)

• International outlook –

staff, students and

research (7.5%)

• Academic Peer Review

(40%)

• Global Employer

Review (10%)

• Faculty/Student ratio

(20%)

• Citations per faculty

(20%)

• International faculty

ratio (5%)

• International student

ratio (5%)

• Education: Alumni

winning Nobel Prizes

and Fields Medals

(10%)

• Faculty: Staff winning

Nobel Prizes and Fields

Medals (20%)

• Highly cited researchers

in 21 categories (20%)

• Research – papers in

Nature and Science

(20%)

• Papers indexed in

Science/ Social Science

Citation (20%)

• Per Capita academic

performance (10%)

Source: Barber et al. (2013)

Key issues in relation to rankings?

• Who are the benefits and who are the losers of

global rankings?

• How is rankings influencing higher education?

• What are the implications for African universities?

(Teferra, 2015)

• Should we develop an African rankings system?

• Biases – language, historical, economic, etc.

• Is it appropriate to compare different types of

institutions?

• What are the impacts of rankings on students?

Selected indicators of research excellence

International ranking and rating

Publications outputs, especially in accredited and high impact

journals

Number of excellent (NRF rated and internationally recognised)

researchers, SARCHI Chairs and Centres of Excellence

Number and throughput rate of postgraduate (masters and PhD)

students

Post-doctoral scholars

Research partnerships and collaboration (Universities, Research

Councils, government, etc.)

IP and commercial research components

Private sector/ industry linkages

Third stream funding/ research-based consultancy

Originality and significance of research

Impact on staff morale and motivation (Harde et al., 2011)

Quality assurance and data

management issues

• Linked to ethics and integrity

• Research has well-established peer review

processes – what are the challenges?

• What quality standards and controls should we

use?

• Role of quality assurances processes and units

• Do we have the capacity and resources?

• Do we have the systems and procedures?

• What should be the indicators?

• Critical for monitoring and evaluation

Additional challenges emerging

• Academic freedom and accountability

• Institutional plagiarism (Berry, 2013)

• Perverse incentives (Stephan, 2012)

• Neglect of community outreach and

engagement (2012)

• Disciplinary bias

• Gender (Fox et al., 2011) and racial bias

• Locational bias (Damtew, 2015) – Africa’s

position

Adopting an institutional strategic

approach

Strategic focus (20+ years)

Priorities, guidelines and responsiveness to future

opportunities

Alignment to university’s strategic research objectives

and financial and human resources

Establish links between research, teaching,

partnerships and community engagement

Continuous monitoring, review and evaluation to inform

improvements and ensure excellence in research

Strategic summary at UKZN

To be the Premier University of African Scholarship

African-led

globalisation

Efficient and effective

management

Institution of

choice for staff

Institution of choice for

learners

Responsible community

engagement

PRE-EMINENCE

IN RESEARCH

Excellence in

teaching and learning

Research focus areas

Increasing publications (especially in

international and high impact journals)

Increasing postgraduate recruitment and

throughput

Increased funding in R&D/ improved incentives

Increased research partnerships and

collaborations

Recruit and retain excellent staff (especially

among historically disadvantaged groups)

Research innovation and commercialisation

Staff and student mobility

Strengthen and diversity the research portfolio

Research based consultancies

Competitive research infrastructure

Effective research management and governance

National and international ranking of UKZN

Graduation and retention rate among postgraduates

No. of publications in international and high impact journals

No. of active collaborative research projects/ partnerships

Impact index of scientific publications - citations and H

Factor

No. of rated and internationally recognised researchers

No. of doctorate students and

postdocs

Amount of funding for R&D

No. of fellowships and mobility grants

No. and amount of research grants

No. of patents

No. of research-based consultancies

Vision

Goals

Strategic

research

initiatives

Progress

indicators

Main areas of intervention

Quality versus quality – how do we change behavior?

How do we address inefficiencies and inequalities?

Recruit and retention

Undergraduate and postgraduate programs – increase

efficiency and throughput rates

Strategic partnerships with relevant government

departments (eg. MILE, national departments) and the

private sector

Strategic partnerships with international universities and

funding agencies (especially in Africa)

Fostering interdisciplinarity and partnership (Townsend et al.,

2015)

Mentoring, training and support

SWOT Analysis: Identifying challenges

and opportunities

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

SWOT AnalysisSTRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

- Attracting top academics and researchers

- Growing research pedigree

- Development of niche areas

- Endowments that permit funding for strategic

projects

- Clear policies and guidelines

- Growing national and international partnerships and

collaboration both nationally and internationally

- Research inactive or low productivity staff

- Academic profile/ qualifications

- Tensions around workload allocation

- Aging staff profile

- Sustainability considerations

- Postgraduate throughput

- Staff turnover and mobility

- Poor monitoring and evaluation of impacts

- Few externally funded research positions

- Dependency on state funding instruments

- Limited mentoring of new and inactive staff

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

- External funding (but can improve)

- Increase in private sector third stream funding

- Increased quality and impact of research globally

- Increase internationalization in relation to staff and

student mobility

- Researchers and research areas with strong national

and international profiles

- Increased focus on innovation and opportunities for

commercialization

- Higher education competitive environment

(national and global)

- Reduction in funding

- Attrition and loss of staff

Broader Purpose

… knowledge must continually be renewed by

ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It

resembles a statue of marble which stands in the

desert and is continually threatened with burial

by the shifting sand, The hands of service must

ever be at work, in order that the marble

continues to lastingly shine in the sun. To these

serving hands mine shall also belong.

(Albert Einstein)

Thank You! Siyabonga!

Prof Urmilla Bob

UKZN

bobu@ukzn.ac.za

INSPIRING GREATNESS!