Transcript Universities Redefined

Universities Redefined
Engines of Commerce
The Scenario
 An exponential rate of change
 Global resource hunting
 Corporatisation & commercialisation
 Stakeholder implications
– Education
– National economic development
– Societal knowledge
Key Questions
 What factors have driven radical
transformation of universities?
 What has been government’s role?
 What characteristics have been imported
from the private sector?
 What historical origins are reflected?
Study Design
 Multiple study sources
 International experiences
 Neo-institutional sociology perspective (NIS)
– Pursuing legitimacy
– Institutionalisation
– Homogenisation
– Isomorphism
– Projecting rational imagery
– Decoupling
Government: The Remote Controller
 New Public Management
– Outcomes & value-for-money focus
– User pays philosophy
– Market vehicle
 Associated trends
 Devolving responsibility & retaining control
 Higher education reflection
– Reduced government funding
– Market revenue focus
– Commercial strategies
Has Government Kept its Cake and
Eaten it Too?
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USA - ↑ student nos. & ↓ govt. funding
UK - 40% ↓ govt. funding/student since 1976
European sample - ↓ % GDP per capita funding
Australia:
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1955-70: treble student nos.
1990s: student nos. ↑ 70%, academic staff nos. unchanged
1996-2005: 51% ↑ student nos. = total 1 million
1987-2003: % higher education funding from govt. ↓ from
85% to 41%
– Since 1995: 1/3rd ↓ in govt. higher education spending from
1.2% to 0.8% GDP
Yes, Govt. Kept And Ate its Cake!
 Withdrew funds & repositioned universities
– More employable graduates for less cost
– Teaching and research oriented to national goals
 Centralised and tightened control over
university outcomes & products
 Deregulated direct control
 Retained control through:
– Contingent funding
– Market based KPIs
The Hybrid Corporation I
 Corporatised & Commercialised
– Business model grafted onto public service
– Applied education & research services
– Products & services retailer
 Restructuring
– University leader = CEO
– Governing council = corporate board
– CEO & Senior Executive direction
– Professors = middle managers
The Hybrid Corporation II
 Private sector philosophy, objectives, language
– Profit and prestige
– Image & brand
– Private interest service
– Corporate business language replacing academic
 Courses/program = products
 Students = customers
 Reputation = brand
 Target markets and pricing predominate
Good News or Bad?
 Advantages:
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enrolling a higher proportion of the total population
internationalisation of teaching programs & student bodies
better links with industry & commerce
more efficient internal operations
better access to research sites
more workplace relevant teaching programs
improved graduate employment rates
access to better facilities & equipment
more flexibility in recruiting high quality staff
 Disadvantages:
– more expensive access to education for aspiring students
– abandonment of societal critique in favour of vocational
teaching & corporate sponsored research
– reduction in standards & quality of students recruited
– reduction in standards & quality of programs taught
Governing Scientifically
 Professional managers in power
– Top-down authority & control
 Decline in collegial decision-making
– Academics redefined as employees
 The senior executives
– Contingent remuneration
– Redefined deans
 Reflecting Taylorist Scientific Management
– Top-down governance
– Efficiency focus
– TQM, best practice, re-engineering…………..
The New Corporate Focus
 Financial management and returns
 Continual search for efficiencies
 KPI based performance management
 Intrusive accountability systems
 Revenue search via:
– Brand management
– Internationalisation
The Financial Imperative
 The contemporary university
 The new credo
– Generate/transmit knowledge and charge!
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The revenue generating strategies
Seeking cost efficiencies
The expanding central bureaucracy
Teaching & research transformed into
revenue stream development
 Financial management & budgeting systems
central to university identity & shaping
In Search of Efficiency
 Reflecting Scientific Management & NPM
 Multiple potentially conflicting agendas
 Cost minimisation & profit maximisation
 The mass education philosophy
 The production line
 The results
Performance Accountability
 Community demands
 University outputs accountability
 Methods of extraction
 Quantification – the order of the day
 Dressing up as quality
 The new preoccupation
 The short term focus
The Global Game
 The global education playing field
 The common catchcry
 A convenient rationale
 Homogenised profiles & strategies
 An aggravated trend
 The international student boom
Commercialised Outcomes
 Educational packaging
– Applied
– Streamlined
 Research agenda
– Funding oriented
– Short term focussed
– Applied
 Redefined academic roles
Customised Education
 Massification, efficiency, & profit drivers
 Competitive education strategies
 The redefined student consumer
 Customised consumer educational impacts
 The graduate earning power benchmark
 The “Utilitarian Trap”
Research for Funding
 External funding & partnerships
 Capitalisation of knowledge for business
 The new benchmark – financial success
 Compromising independence
 The academic research entrepreneur
 Private interest replacing public interest
 Government research rankings
 Commodified tradeable research
 Goal displacement
 The new corporate ‘research workers’
Academics Redefined
 Academics’ attitudes
 Diverging academic roles
 Rising workloads
 Changing work modes
 Limited autonomy & freedom of speech
 Emerging role & value conflict
Reflections in the Mirror
 Radical change
– Government coercion
– NPM & business mirroring
– Professional management value importing
 Scientific management & global homogenisation
 The new focus & discourse
 Commodified education & research
 Reconstructed academics
 Economic rationalism and Friedmanite economics
 Transitory decoupling
– The unknowns
 An unpredictable future