University Autonomy -A Practical Handbook

2021

This master thesis examines the driving forces and the process of change in Myanmar’s Higher Education Policy towards strengthened university autonomy. The study aims to understand the main problems impacting changes from 2014 to 2015 in the (Higher) Education Law of Myanmar in the area of university autonomy, the agreed upon policy objectives with respects to identified problems and the underlying policy theory, ideology or knowledge basis for the identification of the problems with respect to 2014 (Higher) Education Law. To do this, an analytical framework based on Kingdon’s Multiple-Streams Approach, a framework to understand policy change process by identifying policy window through problem, policy and politics streams and Gornitzka’s Policy Framework, a framework used to identify problems, underlying policy theory and the policy objectives, were used. Using the analytical framework, a document review and interviews with key stakeholders from students, teachers, policy consultan...

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Research of Educational Administration and Management (ICREAM 2019), 2020

University autonomy is a strategic effort taken to realize professional service of universities. This research aimed to describe the implementation process of university autonomy and to find the model of autonomy implementation. The researchers utilized qualitative approach in the form of a case study using Spradley's technique of analysis. The results of this research presented that some universities in Indonesia have academic autonomy; Prabu Brawijaya University, Institut Teknologi Ganesha, and Kampus Bumi Siliwangi. The managements of the study programs and departments have autonomy in making policies for academic development. On the other hand, larger units of the universities make non-academic policies, i.e. the faculties at Prabu Brawijaya University, the faculties and the Directorate of Facilities and Infrastructures at Institut Teknologi Ganesha, and the faculties and the post graduate school at Kampus Bumi Siliwangi. It can be stated that the autonomy of universities in Indonesian just in semi autonomy level, for nonacademic affairs still cover by a higher unit. The implication is from the difference of academic and non-academic autonomy which affect the synergy decrement between academic program and non-academic support, so that the accomplishment in academic field cannot be optimum. The study program as the academic activity implementer needs to be supported by the authority of non-academic field for fulfiling the improvement of academic quality service.

Knowledge and Performance Management

In order to reform and modernize the system of higher education, an important step is to assess the constituent parts of the institutional autonomy of higher education institutions (HEI), which allows, on the basis of a combination of the level of autonomy of higher education systems of countries and their universities, and indicators of the quality of scientific and educational activities of the HEI, to ensure a unified approach to information and analytical assessment of university autonomy in general. This fact proves the necessity of developing a methodological approach to the assessment and management of institutional autonomy of the HEI. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of the models of university autonomy, international and national approaches to the assessment of the components of institutional autonomy such as organizational, personnel, academic and financial. The methodical approach to the evalution of the institutional autonomy of the HEI is developed. The p...

Higher Education Quarterly, 2017

In this article we discuss recent university reforms aimed at enhancing university autonomy, highlighting various tensions in the underlying reform ideologies. We examine how the traditional interpretation of university autonomy has been expanded in the reform rationales. An analytical framework for studying how autonomy is interpreted and used inside the university is presented, which allows us to highlight that in order to understand the implications of enhanced university autonomy, we have to go beyond the scrutiny of formal arrangements and analyse practices of autonomy within the university which we refer to as the university's living autonomy. Finally we introduce ideas for further research on the living autonomy with the use of our analytical framework. University autonomy is a concept that is used to describe and examine the governance relationships between state authorities and the university, both at the level of the university system/sector as well as at the individual institutional level. The scholarly interest in university autonomy is embedded in the interest in the fields of public policy and public administration in bureaucratic autonomy, which can be defined as 'the ability to translate one's own preferences into authoritative actions, without external constraints' (Magetti & Verhoest, 2014, p. 239; see also . Hence, the question of autonomy addresses the discretion that the university has to decide in matters that it considers important . Enhancing institutional autonomy is an important issue in the current policy debates concerning the way in which the university is to be governed, organised and funded. In Europe, this has come to the fore in national higher educationreform initiatives, as well as in the European Commission's reform agendas for higher education (Commission,2006(Commission, , 2011)), all showing a strong belief in the relationship between enhanced institutional autonomy and the academicperformance as well as socio-economic relevance of the university. Concomitantly, over the last few decades, all overEurope the formal governance relationship between the state and the university has been modified very often implying changes in the legal status of the university and a strengthening of the formal level of institutional autonomy. In these reforms, the assumption that autonomy prompts strategic profiling of universities, thus improving performance-interpreted from an academic as well as a socio-economic point of view-has been emphasised. Consequently, a key question is: how have these reforms affected the functioning of universities and their relevance, that is, their relationship with society? We want to contribute to the understanding of the impact of reforms by presenting an analytical framework for analysing university autonomy. This framework draws on the Flagship project, in which we studied how major research-intensive universities interpret and use institutional autonomy internally. This implies that we were not focusing on the formal autonomy of the university, but on

Tampere University Press, 2018

Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Parami Institute , 2020

From the perspective of economic development, higher education systems have two primary functions in contributing to a country’s economic development. First, it trains and produces skilled workers, specialized experts, and professionals, all indispensable human resources in bringing about economic development. Second, it generates, makes use of, and disseminates new knowledge and technical know-how, therefore enhancing productivity and sustaining economic growth. Through these two important functions, higher education institutions (HEIs) contribute to economic development and keep a country competitive in this globalized age. However, realizing the above functions of HEIs requires institutional autonomy. There is a strong relationship between institutional autonomy and higher education development; a higher degree of autonomy is associated with enhanced graduate competencies and increased quality and quantity of research output (Ritzen, 2016). Recognizing this fact, the Myanmar government has moved in the right direction toward greater autonomy in HEIs. In the context of Myanmar’s higher education system, institutional autonomy has four different aspects which are considered of primary importance: (1) organizational autonomy, (2) academic autonomy, (3) staffing autonomy, and (4) financial autonomy. In this policy brief, Myanmar’s current government funding model and methods will be discussed, and alternative models will be suggested.

Der Donauraum, 2023

See http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137040107 Although concepts such as “academic freedom” and “institutional autonomy” look simple and clear, they ought not to be treated as the “last station” of a long and winding historical journey. Rather, we should think of these concepts as under continuous negotiation. In Europe and around the world, the concept of academic autonomy has passed through turbulent times over the last half-century. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the universities grew into a mass system. Among the consequences of that development were renewed ideas of university autonomy. In the 1960s and immediately afterward, academic freedom remained in the forefront of debates, although differently in the East than in the West. Still, between 1980 and 2000, institutional autonomy was increasingly central to debate. Today, academic freedom is a primary concern only in rare cases where democracy is still not characteristic of public life. I argue that the s...

2014

Many governments in Asia have granted greater autonomy to institutions of higher education in recent decades. It was expected that this autonomy would lead to new governance structures and enhance the operational efficiency of institutions. The research studies included in this volume have investigated whether this autonomy has actually led to improved efficiency at the institutional level and overall effectiveness at the system level. Based on studies in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, and Viet Nam, the research demonstrates that autonomy has made institutions more independent, exercising freedom to prepare plans, appoint staff, mobilise resources, introduce new study programs, establish new structures of governance, and introduce substantial changes in the academic and administrative decision-making process. However, autonomy also introduced an element of financial uncertainty, due to the smaller role of the state in the management of institutions, and resulted in the reduced a...

Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy, 2020

Different traditions of knowledge production and variations in history, political cultures, educational cultures and state-university relations suggest different interpretations of academic freedom and university autonomy. This paper provides a new perspective and expands the understanding of institutional autonomy and academic freedom by analysing the practices of state interventions and the consequences of neoliberal reforms in East Asian higher education. Our analyses advance two main arguments (1) in East Asia, authoritarianism is not the only threat to institutional autonomy and academic freedom, the application of market fundamentalism in higher education reforms leads to even tougher curbs on them; (2) greater institutional autonomy may not ensure academic freedom at the individual level.