Synonyms
Accountability; Autonomy; Bureaucracy; European Commission; Managerialism; New Public Management; Performance-based funding; Reforms; Shared governance
Autonomy and accountability in Western European higher education have been the focus of multiple rounds of reforms, most recently, at the turn of the twenty-first century. Up to then, many higher education systems in Europe were run centrally by the ministries. In some countries, the faculties were considered to be institutions on a par with the university of which they were but a theoretical part; often, they received their funding from their ministry rather than via the central university administration. This meant that universities were “loosely coupled systems” (Weick 1976) and their leadership constrained in their steering ability.
Several contextual developments have precipitated a wave of policy reforms that affected both autonomy and accountability, including increased globalization and internationalization; the growing...
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Sursock, A. (2018). Autonomy and Accountability in Higher Education, Western Europe. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_162-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_162-1
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