Changing patterns of HE governance in Europe and the UK: are they fit for purpose?

Overview

Society is facing ?a crisis of governance? across all sectors?financial services, public bodies and government itself. Higher education does not stand apart from this under the pressures of expanding student numbers, rising costs, increasing competition and globalisation, and when public finances are under severe strain. In response every European country, including the UK, has embarked on some form of system-wide governance reform.

These reform programmes have been heavily influenced by international bodies (EU, OECD, UNESCO, World Bank) and by internal constitutional and fiscal pressures, and have occasioned significant changes in the governance and management of HE institutions themselves. Increased marketization and the growth of private sectors has further changed the HE landscape.

This study, which is to be conducted by Professors Ellen Hazelkorn, Peter Scott and Michael Shattock and Dr Aniko Horvath, aims to explore (1) how changed governance structures at global, system and institutional levels inter relate (2) how the global and system changes impact on institutional governance and what the institutional responses have been, and (3) the extent to which these changes provide the best constitutional and organisational framework for the conduct of research, scholarship and teaching.

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