CHEMP Current Projects
The Changing Nature of the Academic Deanship: A Comparative Study Between Australia and the Netherlands
In 2005 Lynn Meek, Leo Goedegebuure (pictured here on their way to interview Deans in Brisbane) and Harry de Boer, assisted by Jeannet van der Lee, finished the empirical research for the ARC-funded project on the changing nature of the academic deanship. The project is focussed on how the changes in institutional governance structures in universities, that in themselves reflect changes in the universities’ external environment, impact on the position of the academic deanship. Recognising that we can see a change from academic self-governance towards forms of line management in combination with a devolution of authority at the system’s level, the question is addressed if, how and to what extent these new patterns of authority and accountability have altered the centres of gravity in and the style and decisiveness of decision-making processes within universities. Although we all know that there is much change going on in higher education, we also know that universities can be seen as bastions of tradition, perhaps not as open to new forms of management as some would us have to believe. After all, professional autonomy, fragmentation and diffusion of decision-making powers also still can be found in contemporary universities. Which on the face of it creates a fair bit of tension. Tension that, if we are correct in our assumptions, should be reflected in the position of the academic deanship, being sort of “caught in the middle” in an institution that is going through a period of profound change.
The focus on Australia and the Netherlands is intentional in that we assume that Australian higher education has gone further down the road of market environments, (inter)national competition and the adoption of what in the literature has become known as New Public Management, amongst others embodied in more executive management styles, than has been the case in the Netherlands. Though at the same time there is no doubt in our mind that the Dutch system is undergoing profound change as well, both in terms of external pressures, including a vastly changing European (higher education) landscape [Bologna, Lisbon], and internal changes in institutional governing structures. This leads us to hypothesize that both Australian and Dutch deans will portray traits associated with the new public management paradigm, but that this will be more pronounced in the case of Australia than in the Netherlands.
In order to address our assumptions and expectations, we have first created profiles of the deans, including questions such as who they are, what is their background, what powers do they hold in their respective institutions, and how long have they been in their current position. This statistical profile subsequently has been fleshed out through a large series of interviews with academic deans in the two countries. In total some 50 interviews have been conducted. The data that these have generated currently are being analysed by the research team. A number of journal articles is in preparation and 2006 will see the publication of the overall project results in a monograph.