Higher Education Management and Policy

Government decreases in funding to universities accompanied by increased accountability measures for both teaching and research have resulted in tertiary management structures consistent with these developments. Universities have historically relied upon the active and collegial participation of their academic staff to achieve the goals and aspirations that have driven the sector for generations. This paper utilises psychological motivation theory and research to examine developments designed by management to promote faculty productivity. We challenge the naive implementation of change strategies that do not appear to be based on theory and/or research. Strategies are proposed for monitoring such changes in policy and practice within well-established social science paradigms to ensure achievement of desired ends rather than undesirable negative effects upon the university’s capacity to fulfil its role in the creation and transmission of new knowledge...

Bournemouth University faces the same challenges as many other universities. These arise from the sector-wide agendas, such as widening participation, regional partnerships and international collaboration, in addition to increasing research activity and managing with reduced funding. A key priority within Bournemouth’s Learning and Teaching Strategy is to use learning technologies to address these challenges. Several incentives are being used to encourage lecturers to adopt online learning. These have as their common focus the need to value teaching activity on an equal footing with research. The strategies used include funding for learning and teaching projects, a Learning and Teaching Fellowship Scheme, the creation of a Centre for Academic Practice to focus on pedagogic research, payment for membership of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and a staff development programme for Programme Leaders. These initiatives are possible because the University has take a strategic approach to using government funds for learning and teaching and human resources development (HRD) policies. However, putting in place such incentives is only worthwhile if they work, and research suggests that successful and widespread implementation of online learning depends on a number of factors (Johnston and McCormack, 1996; Steel and Hudson, 2001; Somekh, 1998; Spotts, 1999). This article presents findings from research in progress by the author which is investigating factors affecting the adoption of online learning by lecturers at Bournemouth and their motivation to change their teaching methods. The methodology used is action research and the article ends by briefly illustrating some of the issues faced by the researcher conducting research in her own organisation...

Academic staff and the academic research, teaching and scholarship they undertake are quite properly the prime focus in universities. However, in the modern university, these functions could not be carried out without the input of general (AKA "nonacademic") staff. Staff who are not members of academe represent about 50% of all staff, and as a group are treated with antipathy by many academics. The terms "governance" and "administration" are misunderstood by many academics and used interchangeably when it suits them. This paper considers the binary divide between "academic" and "non-academic" staff, and considers the importance of terminology in ensuring that the total university can operate as efficiently as possible...

In many respects, adjustment to the new commercial environment has been painful and damaging to the academic profession in Australia. The profession is now more fragmented and has lost political influence and standing. Academic salaries have failed to keep pace with professional salaries and many academics are highly critical of changes in government higher education policy, reduced government financial support for universities and structural and management changes within their institutions. Many feel a strong sense of frustration, disillusionment and anger. However, not all adjustments have been negative. Australian academics today are better-qualified, work harder and are more productive in research than they were in the 1970s. They continue to be deeply interested in key academic roles and many still find their jobs satisfying. Many have made successful transitions to involvement in research links with industry and other entrepreneurial activities, without jeopardising their academic integrity. But the views of PhD students give cause for concern, especially dissatisfaction about course experience, uncertainty about future careers and highly negative views of both universities and academic employment...

The substantial pressures upon higher education systems and institutions are impacting upon individual roles and career paths. Yet recent research on academic identities (Henkel, 2000) suggests the responses are largely adaptive and evolutionary. This article starts by briefly revisiting some of the key aspects of the study by Kogan, Moses and El-Khawas (1994), and the paper by Gordon (1997), before turning to a short discussion of the principal trends which have affected the scene subsequently. It then explores three scenarios in terms of roles and career paths: evolution, selective restructuring, and step-change restructuring. The possible characteristics and implications for various stakeholders of each are considered, as is the connection to current trends, and indicators of change. The paper concludes with suggestions as to how institutions and systems might strategically plan for, and manage, changes in roles and career paths in order to ensure that individuals are motivated and perceive the changes positively and creatively...

The article studies relationships between changes in institutional funding patterns and staff incentives. Although specific internal university incentives were not considered in any detail in Academic Capitalism, it is believed that the alterations in HEI funding patterns instituted by governments described therein almost certainly created organisational dynamics that resulted in more specific incentives being created or expanded within HEIs, and that these incentives had a direct impact on academic staff. This led the author and PhD students to try to establish whether there were in fact causal relationships among the changes in institutional funding patterns and the activities within HEIs. They conducted econometric analyses to study how involvement in grant and contract work impacted the time allocations and productivity of individual academic staff members. The author concludes that declining revenue shares from government block grants is having major impacts on HEIs, but that the magnitude and nature of these impacts, is enormously varied, not only across HEIs but within as well. Within institutions, effects of shifting revenue structures depend upon many factors, including the extent to which and the manner by which the institution transmits environmental pressures to internal units and individual staff members...

National planners struggle to formulate policies which will enable mass higher and universal tertiary education systems to meet diverse needs for lifelong learning in a knowledge society. Institutional leaders experience ambiguity and stress in seeking an identity appropriate to their particular university in a contradictory policy environment which gives mixed messages. With high levels of stress, multiple conflicting demands and scarce resources, there is a natural but short-sighted tendency to manage more tightly and prescriptively as a way of trying to ensure productivity and accountability. This analysis from a large, broad-based and deliberately innovative Australian university examines these tensions. The new RMIT leadership has set out by transparent and participatory means to diagnose its environment, restate its mission and strengthen internal and external partnership to do its work. Networking and engagement are essential for a knowledgemaking and knowledge-using institution to learn and contribute effectively. However, contradiction and uncertainty in the policy environment, which reflect wider societal ambiguities, make this a daunting task...

There is pressure on Australian universities to adopt organisational structures, job design, remuneration and performance management systems based on corporate sector best practice. However, these systems and practices are often at least 20 years old and are based on command-control bureaucracies that dominated the manufacturing and service industries. They are not only alien to universities but are increasingly seen as inappropriate to knowledge-based professional organisations in the corporate sector because the underlying assumptions about what motivates people are at odds with what research shows motivates professional "knowledge-workers". This research identifies sources of motivation that resonate with what has underpinned traditional university remuneration, promotion and performance schemes. However this does not mean that there is no need for change to those traditional schemes. As academic work becomes more complex and the academic labour market more differentiated, there is a need to recognise this greater diversity within extended promotional and reward schemes...

Over the last few years, university professors’ careers have undergone a change approaching a true revolution: a major diversification in career models, from fundamental research to professional innovation to knowledge transfer; increased use of computerised tools and the Internet in both teaching and research; the all but mandatory requirement to form research teams and networks, often multidisciplinary in nature; the growth in partnerships with industry for both training and research; and ever more complex and demanding regulations governing intellectual property. We also see more competition, often ferocious, among universities and between academe and private companies to attract the most promising candidates. In this context, it has become more vital than ever before for universities to put in place reinforcement systems that are both fair and capable of motivating excellence and of attracting and retaining the best people. In past decades, the traditional reinforcers were the merit pay system and tenure, not counting other incentives used on a random and situational basis, generally in the absence of well-established rules. The current context demands a richer, more complex, more transparent and more diversified reinforcement system that will integrate a set of incentives that are more closely tied to current academic needs and faculty members’ quality of life. This article, which is based on the experiences and thought process of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Université de Montréal and on the orientations of a number of North American universities, illustrates an integrated approach to academic reinforcement systems, from hiring to retirement, and a merit pay model adapted to the university of the 21st century. The need to review promotion criteria and standards is particularly emphasised...

Using the now classic distinction drawn by P.B. Doeringer and M.J. Piore between internal and external labour markets, this article endeavours to characterise university labour markets and recent developments affecting them in three countries, namely France, Germany and the United States. It is based on a qualitative empirical survey covering all three countries and a total of 21 universities. We can thus identify and compare various ways of fostering commitment, loyalty and motivation among academic staff in each case. We show that the selection tools specific to external markets vary from one country to another ("recruitment pools" versus "up or out") and use different modes of regulation. We also show that the equilibrium between internal and external markets in each country is, like the instruments used, closely linked to the conceptions prevailing within the academic profession. Consequently, the recognition system cannot be changed merely by changing the rules, since standards and relations within the profession will also be affected...