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HEEM/MPhil in Higher EducationPeter MaassenIntroductory semester, Unit 3, lecture 2Oslo, 25 September 2007

Unit 3Conditions under which HE operates:

National conditions

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Starting points

The national conditions

Discussion of the governance (steering, coordination, control) models used by nation states with respect to their higher education system

Starting-point:

How do national governments want to affect their higher education systems? What are the major recent changes in these efforts?

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Literature

Literature:

1. Gornitzka, Å. (1999) Governmental policies and organisational change in higher education. Higher Education, Vol. 38, pp. 5-31.

2. Gornitzka, Å. and P. Maassen (2000) Hybrid steering approaches with respect to European higher education. Higher Education Policy, Vol. 13, pp. 267-285.

3. Gumport, P. (2000) Academic restructuring: Organizational change and institutional imperatives. Higher Education, Vol. 39, pp. 43-66.

4. Jongbloed, B. (2000) The funding of higher education in developing countries. In: B. Jongbloed and H. Teekens (eds.) The Financing of Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 13-43.

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Policy-making in higher education

What is a POLICY?!

- values, purpose, direction

- Strategy paper (incl. Problems and solutions, actions measures)

- Guidelines for responses

- Laws and rules wrt HE

- Frame of reference

- Directive (guide)

- Organised, systematic attempt to influence reality

- Instruments, mechanisms for reaching goals

- Continuously reviewed/evaluated

- Program of action to achieve specific goals

- Decision by politics

- Policy for defining boundaries

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Policy-making in higher education

State models

Steering models

Governance models

Efforts to systematize the various approaches

governments can use to govern ‘their’ society

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Policy-making in higher education

What can governments do to influence, if not

steer, the national higher education system?

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State/steering models

Gornitzka (1999): Analyzing the relationship between governmental policy and organisational change

Characteristics of policy process and content (definitions and understandings of ”policy” – debates, green/white papers, degree of formalisation)

- Policy process (bargaining, policy arenas, policy actors, level of conflict, policy traditions)

- Policy content

a) Policy problem

b) Policy objectives (changing, adjusting or maintaining behaviour)

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State/steering models

c) Normative/theoretical basis of a policy (legitimation: knowledge; values and beliefs, ideology)

d) Policy instruments (Information, regulations/law, organisation, resources)

e) Policy linkages (coherence/consistency)

System-level characteristics (which constrain, facilitate, mediate change: state-models)

- The sovereign state (strong control)

a) Top-down

b) Hierarchy

c) Change happens as a response to political initiatives

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State/steering models

- The institutional state (protect academic values and traditions) (England before Thatcher…)

a) defend academic freedom

b) decision-making is specialist and traditionalist

c) division of power and authority

d) change happens as a consequence of evolution and historical development

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State/steering models

- The corporate-pluralist state (state is not the only legitimate power)

a) role of HE reflect many interests in society

b) policy-making takes place through a corporate network having diverse status

c) decision-making processes is closed arenas, through negotiations

d) change happens as a result of changes in power and influence

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State/steering models

- The supermarket state (minimal state, private actors important, market as the regulating mechanism)

a) Role of HE is to deliver services to the public

b) Role of the state is that of the ”bookkeeper” – overseeing the market

c) Institutional autonomy depends on the ability to survive

d) Change happens as a consequence of changes in the environment (market)

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Change versus continuity

- Europe: from sovereign state model to

corporate state model, and

supermarket model

- Other countries?

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Change versus continuity

- Related terms and concepts:

a) ”The evaluative state” (Neave)

b) ”Self-regulation” (van Vught)

c) Accountability (reporting requirement)

d) ”Marketplace” (pointing to the increasing use of market-like tools)

Gumport:

the underlying idea of the university is changing

from a social institution to a part of the economy

(industry). Change versus continuity?

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External versus internal factors

Conditions under which HE operates

External versus internal factors:

- Tendency to emphasise externalities (policies, international developments [globalization])

- Studies show that internal dimension should not be underestimated

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Theoretical approaches

For discussion:

- Theoretical approaches (or explanatory frames) for improving understanding of higher education change, e.g.

emphasis on:

1. Change as a consequence of environmental processes of competitive selection.

2. Change product of strategic choices of managers and leaders.

3. Change takes place in a complex ecology of actors, processes and determinants.

- Are there some universal principles concerning how to govern and organise higher education?