Autonomy and control: Danish university reform in the context of modern governance

Abstract

In 2003 the Danish government reformed universities to 'set them free' from the state. Yet ministers are actively trying to shape universities and even set research agendas. How does the government's notion of 'freedom' reconcile independence with control? We identify three discourses of freedom: freedom to use academic judgement over what to research, teach, publish and say publicly; a free trade discourse where universities are free to pursue profit; and a modernising state discourse where government steers universities to contribute to the knowledge economy. Danish universities were reformed as part of the modernisation of the welfare state. We explore the assemblage of administrative and funding mechanisms through which the government now steers independent organisations: a chain of contracts for outsourced services, newly appointed managers, output payments and accrual accounting. While responsibility for achieving government policy is passed downwards through the independent organisation, formal lines of accountability run back up to the government. University leaders and academics are set free to manoeuvre within the system, but their economic survival is firmly dependent on responsiveness to centralised steering mechanisms

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“…Tato změna s sebou přináší zvýšenou soutěživost, vše se čím dál více týká jen hodnocení vědy a soutěžení o další zdroje účelového fi nancování coby údajných pojistek proti neefektivnosti veřejného výzkumu a terciárního školství (Shore 2010;Shore, Wright 2015;Wright, Ørberg 2008). Tyto změny v řízení výzkumu mají obrovský vliv na to, jak se defi nuje excelence.…”

Performance Measurement at Universities: Studying Function and Effect of Student Evaluations of Teaching

“…In the focus of criticism were also the doctrine of performance measurement systems and instruments (PMI) that were applied to researcher and teacher performance (Kallio & Kallio, 2012). In Denmark, this change has been implemented in 2003 as "the new 2003 University Act" (Kristensen, Nørreklit, & Raffnsøe-Møller, 2011;Wright & Williams Ørberg, 2008) and this implementation almost reinvented the university as a research and teaching organization. In their extended review of the changes, Kristensen et al (Kristensen et al, 2011, s. also Andersen 2002) list a shift in the management structure to mostly external agents and the connection of resource allocation to measurements of research output, but, interestingly enough, not to university administration (Kristensen et al, 2011: 14).…”

“…Despite pointing out that the university is "probably the most 'performancemeasuring' institution there is" (Raffnsøe-Møller, 2011: 49), criticism amongst Danish scholars was huge. Researchers argue that despite the official Danish government agenda to liberate the universities from state influence, the universities are still under pressure from the state -namely to live up to economized standards (Wright & Williams Ørberg, 2008 (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) it deals with how such a PMI can be investigated from a sociological perspective. The research site of this study are the Danish universities, amongst them Aarhus university (AU).…”

Excelence a genderové předsudky v praktikách a vnímání přírodních vědců ve vedoucích a rozhodovacích pozicích

“…dál více týká jen hodnocení vědy a soutěžení o další zdroje účelového fi nancování coby údajných pojistek proti neefektivnosti veřejného výzkumu a terciárního školství (Shore 2010;Shore, Wright 2015;Wright, Ørberg 2008). Tyto změny v řízení výzkumu mají obrovský vliv na to, jak se defi nuje excelence.…”