How can universities contribute to the common good?

Abstract

The U.K. higher education system has become increasingly competitive and stratified prompting calls for a reclaiming of the civic role of universities. This paper argues that, if HE is to reclaim its civic function then civic engagement needs to move beyond being a separate strand of activity for universities, instead becoming a guiding principle. This requires an institution-wide commitment. The paper describes a model developed by a Scottish university to support, recognise and embed civic engagement within the curriculum and wider student experience as part of its core mission. The design and delivery of this development are described and early indicators of its efficacy are provided. Findings indicate that it is possible for universities to operationalise a civic mission by focusing on the curriculum as the mechanism through which to highlight and embed common good attributes.The model described could be replicated in other higher education institutions nationally and internationally.

Manifestations of Collegiality Within Universities: Delocalisation and Structural Hybridity as Governance Forms and Practices

“…However, universities in most jurisdictions are under pressure to respond to multiple contingencies and expectations. Various broad policy trends such as managerialism, NPM (Christopherson et al, 2014) and economic and labour market policies (Klofsten et al, 2019) call for an intensification of the civic role of universities (MacFarlane, 2019), and EDI norms (Tamtik & Guenter, 2019) exert new demands and impact universities' development and governance. For some authors, pressure to incorporate concerned groups within governance has transformed the university from a republic of scholars to a stakeholder organisation (Bleiklie & Kogan, 2007) with negative implications for collegiality and collegial governance.…”

“…For faculty unions, these changes depart from the notion of the collegium as the fundamental governing entity of the university. The governance of universities tends to evolve towards a mix of social pluralism and corporatism where the organisation as an autonomous and accountable entity coexists with the organisation as the mirror of broad societal trends (MacFarlane, 2019). External demands and a more corporate form of governance raise the issue of how universities, as organisations, can adapt to change while maintaining and protecting a critical role for collegiality in shaping these responses.…”

Barriers to sustainability at Pakistan public universities and the way forward

“…Davis et al (2016) argued that governance, capacity building and institutional structure cause budget cuts at HEIs owing to new public management. Another reason for budget cuts is linked with rapidly increasing trends of marketization and privatization, as states devise stringent policies to allocate funds and provide resources to HEIs (Bouillard, 2016; MacFarlane, 2019). Thus, it raises a question to know more about financial resources for sustainability.…”

Online learning and teaching for the SDGs – exploring emerging university strategies

“…SDG L&T requires institution-wide capabilities (Agbedahin, 2019; Cicmil et al , 2017; Maruna, 2019; MacFarlane, 2019). This can involve restructuring of university governance and organisational structures or developing new university-wide SDG centres, initiatives, resources and strategies, as well as cultivating organisational cultures that enable bottom-up leadership by teachers and students (Zamora-Polo and Sanchez-Martin, 2019; Cicmil et al , 2017).…”

“…Marjoram (2018) argues that there is an “urgent need” to develop the necessary graduate attributes in engineering students to enable them to contribute positively to the SDGs. Whether in terms of competencies or graduate attributes, authors highlight the value of reflective learning (Boluk et al , 2019; Zamora-Polo et al , 2019; Riechmann et al , 2017; MacFarlane, 2019).…”