Managerial changes to Australian universities have had considerable impact on employees. In this article, we consider some of these changes and apply a theory known as the democratic deficit to them. This theory was developed from the democratic critique of managerialism, as it has been applied in the public sector in countries with…

While external quality assurance in higher education was originally developed to cater for various domestic needs, recent decades have seen various attempts in the use of quality assurance also as a mechanism for creating more trust in cross-national higher education activities. In this article, a conceptual framework for analysing available…

Academic boards play a key role in the maintenance of quality standards and the provision of strategic leadership on academic issues. The current research investigated the role provided at present to Australian universities through their academic boards. All universities described their academic boards as their principal academic body. The…

Enterprise risk management strategies were used to develop a regulatory and operational framework for a new multi-partner Research Institute that will house up to 900 staff from four different institutions in Queensland, Australia. The Institute will operate in a business environment while functioning as a research resource for the higher…

Universities are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) to support delivery of their objectives. It is crucial, therefore, that the IT investments made lead to successful outcomes. This study analyses the governance structures and decision-making processes used to approve and prioritise IT projects. Factors influencing an…

The agencies responsible for tertiary education quality assurance in Australia and New Zealand have established regulatory regimes that increasingly intersect with tertiary institution policy management. An examination of university meta-policies identified good practices guiding university policy and policy management. Most Australian and half of…

Policy-makers in the United Kingdom increasingly emphasise the contribution of innovation and entrepreneurialism to the economy. Drawing on a recent ethnographic study of a university commercial enterprise, this article examines the notion of entrepreneurialism in a higher education institution as understood and practised by its employees. The…

Much of the rhetoric opposing managerialism in higher education can be ascribed to philosophical and political objections to the neo-liberal ideology which is alleged to underlie the phenomenon. This paper approaches managerialism from a different direction, addressing it within a neo-liberal framework. The paper argues that there is no intrinsic…

This article investigates management systems in higher education organisations by analysing the 2009 Italian reform of performance management and its implementation within Italian universities. The research is based on a survey that covered about half of Italy's public universities. Survey results provide an account of the state of management…

We begin this paper by outlining the "classical" debate on the idea of a university. We then proceed to show how this intellectual ideal has been compromised by successive processes of reform privileging paradigms of managerialism and commodification at the expense of intellectualism in shaping and defining UK higher education, with…

This exploratory study examines the dimensions that are relevant to brand reputation, particularly in the context of master's degree programmes. The data analysis is based on Vidaver-Cohen's "Business school quality dimensions and reputational attributes". The qualitative data for the case study comprise a student questionnaire…

A number of countries with public higher education systems have implemented privatisation policies. In Japan, the national government introduced the National University Corporation Act (NUCA) in 2004 and changed the legal status of national universities from that of government-owned public institutions to independent administrative agencies. Its…

In the United Kingdom higher education environment, government may make efforts to encourage institutions to engage in governance structures to secure policy objectives through a steering approach. In this article connections between skills governance structures and the recent Higher Education Funding Council for England workforce development…

In 2007, Kwara State in Nigeria embarked on a process of college of education reform. This article explores the strategic and managerial issues associated with that process. It sets out the policy imperative for reform within the context of an urgent need to improve the quality of education in Nigeria and traces progress over a four year period,…

This study draws on the multi-theoretical approach to governance and the views of university chief executive officers (CEOs) to examine the extent to which internal auditing as a control mechanism is adopted in Australian public universities under an environment of change management. The findings highlight negative consequences of change and their…