From collegial governance to conduct of conduct: Danish universities set free in the service of the state

Degn, Lise; Sørensen, Mads Peter

doi:10.1007/s10734-014-9814-1

Cited by 41 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Sensemaking is seen to be driven and accentuated by the feeling of increasing complexity or unfamiliar circumstances, which makes Danish HEIs a good place to start when exploring such processes. The Danish higher education system has in the past decades been subject to a series of comprehensive reforms, doing away with the traditionally very strong collegiate bodies, for example, the Senate, and replaced them with external majority governing boards, and abolished the elected leader system, in favour of an appointment scheme (Pinheiro and Stensaker 2014;Degn 2015;Degn and Sørensen 2015). At the same time, other reforms targeted the funding scheme, for example, by making the HEIs very dependent on external funding and by implementing a bibliometric performance measurement system, which favoured international publications in high-ranking journals (Aagaard and Mejlgaard 2012).…”

Section: Sensemaking In Danish Heisanalytical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic sensemaking and behavioural responses – exploring how academics perceive and respond to identity threats in times of turmoil

Degn

2016

Studies in Higher Education

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Reforms and changing ideas about what higher education institutions are and should be have put pressure on academic identity. The present paper explores the way academics in Danish universities make sense of their changing circumstances, and how this affects their perceptions of their organization, their leaders and of themselves. The study highlights how the formal organizations' translations of external impulses and ideas constitute a more severe threat on the perceived identity of the academic staff than the impulses and ideas themselves. The findings indicate that with the tighter couplings of top-level management and the political system, the coupling and identification between academic staff and the formal organization may become weaker. Also, the behavioural responses perceived threats are studied, by examining the 'us'/'them' categorizations of the academics, providing a burgeoning conceptual framework for further studies into how academics change their actions as a result of reforms or organizational change.

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Section: Sensemaking In Danish Heisanalytical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic sensemaking and behavioural responses – exploring how academics perceive and respond to identity threats in times of turmoil

Degn

2016

Studies in Higher Education

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“…The contracts comprise both goals that are set by the Ministry and individual goals set by the institution (and approved by the Ministry). These development contracts are, as mentioned, a core element of the state's influence on the strategy of the institutions (Degn & Sørensen, 2015). In Norway, development contracts have only recently been introduced.…”

Section: Systemic and Institutional Commonalities And Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the internal management structures, there is also a difference between the Danish and the Norwegian higher education institutions. The collegial structure was abolished in Denmark in 2003 and replaced by a more 'managerial' and corporate-inspired model, which focuses on professional and efficient management (Degn & Sørensen, 2015). In Norway, the development has proceeded in the same direction but collegiate bodies still exist at the departmental level.…”

Section: Systemic and Institutional Commonalities And Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

Tømte

Fossland

Aamodt

et al. 2019

Quality in Higher Education

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121

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This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions, in Denmark and Norway. These are countries with similarities regarding digitalisation and educational systems. In the internal processes, there was some use of digital technology in teaching and learning when initiated from administration including IT-staff, in collaboration with academic leaders. There was little or only limited reported use of technology for teaching and learning, when the processes were initiated by administration together with enthusiasts among faculty staff, who did not have leadership roles or influence on change. There was more reported use of technology in teaching and learning in Denmark than Norway. The paper discusses possible explanations for these findings and thus illuminates how processes of digitalisation are influenced by broader governance arrangements, institutional maturity and academic and administration staffs.

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“…The second was replacing the former elected managers with appointed ones. This introduced a line management model, where the board hired the vice chancellor, the vice chancellor hired the deans, and the deans hired the head of departments (Degn and Sørensen 2015). In the early 2000s, there was an increased autonomy implemented in Finland by the performance agreements between the universities and the Ministry of Education.…”

Section: National Reforms and Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Roles of Academic Leaders: Decision-Making, Power, and Performance

Geschwind

Aarrevaara

Berg

et al. 2019

Reforms, Organizational Change and Performance in Higher Education

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Major reforms in the Nordic countries have increased the formal autonomy of higher education institutions (HEIs) to make decisions over their own activities, both academic core tasks and managerial/administrative activities. The issue addressed in this chapter is how these changes have affected the role of the academic leader. Across the four countries, we see clear signs of change regarding academic leadership comprising a mix of institutional logics in the interviews: the professional, collegial traditional academic leadership, which is based on rotating systems, election among peers, and collegial decision-making, has been complemented with, and in some places replaced by, a managerial logic with top-down order-giving, performance measurement and appointed managers as a new academic profession. Another related general trend is the greater focus on individual managers. The analysis also shows that Denmark and Finland are the countries that lead the way when it comes to increasing the formal authority of managers. The introduction of appointed managers rather than elected ones has altered the way HEIs operate in these two countries. However, as this chapter has shed light on, management reform has not been implemented in the same depth and with the same pace across and within universities.

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From collegial governance to conduct of conduct: Danish universities set free in the service of the state

Cited by 41 publications

References 9 publications

Academic sensemaking and behavioural responses – exploring how academics perceive and respond to identity threats in times of turmoil

Academic sensemaking and behavioural responses – exploring how academics perceive and respond to identity threats in times of turmoil

Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

The Changing Roles of Academic Leaders: Decision-Making, Power, and Performance

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