Organizational flexibility of Turkish universities: Evaluations in the institutional reports of European University Association

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the level of organizational flexibility in Turkish universities. The institutional evaluation reports of the European University Association (EUA) related to Turkish universities were used as the data sources. The EUA's reports of 14 universities were selected by taking the locations and dates of their reports into consideration. The research was then designed in a case study pattern, as a qualitative inquiry. During the analysis of the EUA's reports, descriptive thematic analysis was carried out. According to the findings, it can be said that the general level of organizational flexibility in Turkish public universities is not high, as in their institutional autonomy level calculated by the EUA. It seems that financial autonomy initiates the formation of strategy flexibility in universities, and conformable rules and regulations of national higher education provide room to universities for precept and managerial flexibility. The stronger organizational flexibility will then provide a greater university autonomy in terms of financial, managerial, employment, and academic autonomy. Based on these results, several recommendations are proposed to higher education policy makers, as well as to university managers in Turkey.

Social scientists under threat: Resistance and self-censorship in Turkish academia

“…There have been strong ties between the state and Turkish universities for a long time. According to a 2011 study by the European University Association, Turkey was ranked 28th for organizational autonomy out of a total of 29 European countries studied (see Uslu, 2017). Yükseköğretim Kurulu (YÖK), the Turkish Higher Education Board, has been a key instrument used to further strengthen state control over universities.…”

Autonomia institucional e dimensões da internacionalização de Instituições de Ensino Superior brasileiras

“…A autonomia de staff (Dobbins et al, 2011;Uslu, 2017) representa a autoridade de se decidir livremente sobre a contratação de pessoas, nomeações, salários, horas de trabalho, papel dos reitores e/ou da liderança universitária. Em definição similar, a autonomia denominada indicativa envolve a contratação, promoção e demissão de professores, seleção e demissão de reitores e funcionários administrativos e os termos de contratação (Chang, 2004;Sirat & Kaur, 2010).…”

“…Healey 2017 São diversos os conjuntos de indicadores encontrados na literatura (Rudzki, 1995;Qureshi et al, 2014;Dabija et al, 2014;Gao, 2015;Alves, 2017 (Ordorika, 2003;Chang, 2004;Sirat & Kaur, 2010;Enders et al, 2013;Maassen et al, 2017;Uslu, 2017;Carvalho & Diogo, 2018;Jarernsiripornkul & Pandey, 2018).…”

“…A autonomia de equipe, staff ou indicativa está ligada à liberdade de contratar e nomear pessoas, salários, horas de trabalho, papel dos reitores e/ou da liderança universitária, processo de recrutamento e promoção de seus funcionários (Chang, 2004;Sirat & Kaur, 2010;Dobbins et al, 2011;Turcan & Gulieva, 2015;Uslu, 2017).…”

“…-Autonomia de staff: representa a autoridade de se decidir livremente sobre a contratação de pessoas, nomeações, salários, horas de trabalho, papel dos reitores e/ou da liderança universitária (Dobbins et al, 2011;Uslu, 2017). Envolve o quadro acadêmico e administrativo sênior em termos de recrutamento, definição de salários, promoção e demissão (EUA, 2017).…”