Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance

Today, institutional leaders face numerous struggles: intervention from boards of trustees, alumni, and state legislators; decline in financial support from the states; and competition in an increasingly global marketplace. While it is agreed that effective governance structures allow institutions to respond creatively to these challenges, how best to allocate control in order to maximize institutional efficiency, preserve academic freedom, and ensure institutional identity remains unclear. Increasingly, administrators look to non-academic institutions for governance and management strategies.

In Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance, William G. Tierney brings together faculty members, administrators, and policy experts to discuss differing views of academic governance at institutional, state, and international levels. Topics include the effects of globalization and the prospect of international accreditation; balancing the entrepreneurial and philosophical goals of higher education; the interaction between state governments and public universities; and the conflicting interests and roles of boards of trustees, administrators, and faculty. Carefully weighing various models and strategies, Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance provides new ways of understanding and addressing the changes that are transforming higher education.

William G. Tierney is University Professor, Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education, and director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis in the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. He is the editor of The Responsive University: Restructuring for High Performance and Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance: Negotiating the Perfect Storm, both published by Johns Hopkins.