Governance in Higher Education: The University in a State of Flux (review)

This book is a collection of 14 essays about governance in research-intensive universities in the United States and Western Europe. The essays' authors are or were heads of universities and/or scholars, who participated in the second Glion Colloquium in January 2000 in Del Mar, California. This second meeting was a follow-up to discussions resulting in the Glion Declaration of 1998, available at luc.weber@ecopo.unige.ch.

The book is divided into four sections. Part 1, "Missions and Responsibilities of Research Universities," is an essay by Frank Rhodes, former President of Cornell University. It reminds us that universities are among the most durable institutions of the millennium. Rhodes reviews the special nature of research universities and points to a lack of debate about whether the ancient academic governance arrangements continue to serve society well in light of the rapid pace of change confronting modern universities.

Part 2, "Status and Trends in the Governance of Universities," consists of four essays about the challenges presented by a rapidly changing environment. Katharine Lyall, President of the University of Wisconsin, reviews the rise of state systems in the United States, the changed nature of the university presidency and governing boards, and practices of shared governance. James Duderstadt, former President of the University of Michigan, discusses the various players in governance, the complexity of academic governance processes, and the challenges represented by bureaucracies, culture, politics, and the rapid pace of change. He concludes with the argument that the most critical challenge facing most universities is developing the capacity to change. The title of his essay, "Fire, Ready, Aim" is a clever way to call attention to the difficulties of leading in a time of rapid change.

Guy Neave's essay on change in Western European universities reviews the move over the last 30 or 40 years from participatory governance to more management rationality and argues that governance is still in a state of flux. Howard Newby discusses how globalization is impacting the mission, governance, and nature of university interactions.

Part 3, "Governance Principles," consists of three essays that apply lessons from economics, offer some thoughts about governance based on experience, and demonstrate how strategic planning and budgeting can help universities adapt to rapidly changing environment.

Luc Weber argues that a crucial analytic step toward improving university governance is to identify the most critical decisions and the best-placed decision makers. Critical decisions include such internal areas as infrastructure, structure, and finance, and external areas like competition, environment, and networks. He then uses theories of economic federalism to define how certain decisions can be decentralized while others have to be centralized.

Henry Rosovsky in "Thoughts . . ." points out that not all things are improved by making them more democratic, that shared governance offers the best hope of assuring institutional quality, and that the purpose of governance is to improve the capacity for teaching, learning, and research. He observes, also, that the most glaring weaknesses in modern governance are the department chairmanship and the decline of civic virtue.

The essay by Peter L'Orange on setting strategic direction profiles four types of university cultures—adaptive, proactive, entrepreneurial, and rationally managed—and shows how planning and budgeting process can make a difference. This essay is the most "tool-kit oriented" in the book.

Part 4, "Improved Governance," has five essays that describe the conflicts in governance, offer suggestions for improvement, and prescribe agendas for various university actors. These essays are probably the heart of the book and offer a panoply of suggestions that must have engendered lively discussion at the various meetings of the Glion group.

Peter Scott's discussion of governance definitions might have been better placed earlier in the book. He gives several reasons for the growing importance of governance, among them increased size and...