Today's higher education landscape can best be described as unpredictability. This places university governing councils in critical places to begin to think deeply in terms of forms positionality to provide effective governance. For instance, in the South African higher education scenario currently, there are urgent calls for university decolonisation as such university governing bodies have to show that they are on top of the game through demonstrating to their stakeholders that have in place a responsive habitus that supports stakeholder accountability and confidence in these times. This paper examines the relationship between stakeholder accountability and confidence in institutional values that underpin effective governance. Consequently, this paper was developed from a research project that looked at the role of the university councils in bringing about good governance in the former historically black South African universities grappling with such institutional realities. Utilizing the notion of micro-politics developed from the concept of cultures derived from a multi-theoretical approach, the paper examines the framing of good university governance by governing bodies. Data for this study was collected from institutional documentary sources in the public domain, interviews and surveys. This paper ends with suggestions of governance practices that would assist the university councils grappling with such institutional contexts to provide good governance and possibilities for further research.
The post-1994 higher education dispensation has witnessed an increase in the number of institutional stakeholder groups striving to become members of university councils within their particular contexts. As such, they are constantly becoming coalitions of powerful constituencies who seek to influence the running of the council to satisfy stakeholder demands across the university and beyond. Consequently, there is a concern whether institutional stakeholder moves to become a part of the council and is bound to improving governance practices in the universities. This article argues that at the level of the university councils, the institutional strategies, policies and articulation with its different stakeholder groups are critical, using data obtained through the use of documentary sources, interviews and surveys. The results show that institutional stakeholders have strong inclinations towards the governance mechanisms of how individuals become members of the university council, calling for greater professionalization of the governance best practises for improving governance in strongly stakeholder-governed university councils and pointing out possible areas of further research.
The introduction of cooperative governance in the post-1994 South African higher education system brought complex stakeholder dynamics in the leadership and governance of university governing councils. A major concern of these changes was to institutionalize quality management systems. However, these changes brought its own complexities. Key features of this complexity revolved around cooperation and information sharing in the university governance in spite of ideological differences. Using the concept of culture developed from a multi-theoretical approach and data collected from institutional documents available in the public domain, interviews with members of the university council, and surveys of university staff, the chapter examines the extent of the relationship between public tolerance and different stakeholders involved in the university governance. This is with a view to recommend the need for effective governance and quality management system based on the professionalization of governance practices and institutionalized quality management processes.
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