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What Makes University Governance Different?

Glen A. JonesCOUS 2014

Remember that University Governance can be “Different”

• Major variations in university governance by country– Elected board members in US– Party Secretary in Chinese universities– Historical role of the state in continental European

universities

What makes the governance of Canadian universities different than the

governance of other types of corporations?

“I run an airport, of course I know how to run a university!”

Comparing airports and universities

Airport• Not-for-profit corporation• Public interest• Service organization• Multiple stakeholders

(government, public, airlines, etc.)

• Operation involves multiple professions/expertise (pilots, customs, police, security, air traffic control, fire, doctors)

University• Not-for-profit corporation• Public interest• Service organization• Multiple stakeholders

(government, public, students, industry, etc.)

• Operation involves multiple professions/expertise (professors in many fields, student affairs, etc.)

What makes university governance different?

•

1. Academic Freedom

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Wilhelm von Humboldt

University of Berlin (circa 1850)

The University of Berlin

• The first modern “Research University”• To create knowledge, professors must have the

freedom to decide how to use their expertise protected by permanent appointments.

• Freedoms of student and professor were institutionalized:– Freedom to learn– Freedom to teach

Academic Freedom

Generally defined to include the freedom:– To decide what to teach– To decide how to teach– To decide what to research– To decide how to do the research– To report their research findings– TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINIONS– TO BE WRONG

Academic Freedom and Governance

• Many traditional assumptions about management do not apply:– Professors make their own decisions about

teaching and research (with important exceptions) which limits the degree to which they can be “managed”

– Tenure limits the ability to terminate – Professors can offer public opinions on the

operation of the university without retribution

2. Academic Self-Governance

• An important principle in university governance is that academic decisions should be made by academics (and other relevant stakeholders)

• The Acts creating most universities in Canada assigns responsibility for academic matters to a senate which operates in parallel to the governing board.

Bicameralism Makes a Difference

• There are decisions that are important to the university that boards CANNOT make

• Boards need to understand the complexities of dual decision-making streams

• Limits the role of the board in terms of determining the strategic direction of the institution – where it will go, what it will do.

3. Universities as a Strong “Organizational Field”

• Organizational fields are sectors or clusters of organizations that do similar things. There are often “norms” of practice, cultural similarities etc.

• With almost a millennium of history, universities assume that they share a common ancestry with similar practices, norms, customs

The “norms” of the Organizational Field

• Governance should normally be an open and transparent process

• Boards have the responsibility for appointing the president BUT search committees include all major stakeholder groups

• The “academic community” knows what should have happened at U of Saskatchewan and they said so!

4. The Role of the President is Different

• Servant of the Board, but held accountable by the Board, Senate, and academic community

• Executive authority limited by academic self-governance and the “norms” of the organizational field

• Academic freedom limits the ability to “manage” many employees in the traditional sense

The President

• Limited ability to steer the university using executive authority – must build consensus, focus on process

• Must be held to a different standard than other CEOs given the uniqueness of the role

Universities are Different

• Academic Freedom• Academic Self-Governance and the Senate• Strong organizational field with “norms”• Role of the President is Different• BUT these “different” universities are amongst

the oldest of all western institutions: vive la différence

About eighty-five institutions in the Western world established by 1520 still exist with recognizable forms, with similar functions and unbroken histories, including the Catholic Church, the parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland and of Great Britain, several Swiss Cantons, and seventy universities. Kings that rule, feudal lords with vassals and guilds with monopolies are all gone.

These seventy universities, however, are still in the same locations, with some of the same buildings, with professors and students doing much the same things, and with governance carried on in much the same ways. There have been many intervening variations on the ancient themes, it is true, but the eternal themes of teaching, scholarship and service, in one combination or another, continue (Clark Kerr).

Thank you!

For information on my research and publications on university governance go to:

www.glenjones.ca