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Australia’s Universities Read chapter Read first chapter

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. University Governance: Weak at the Top

Authors : Timothy Devinney, Grahame Dowling

Published in: The Strategies of Australia’s Universities

Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore

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Abstract

The strategy of a university is generally developed by the senior executive of the institution. The council plays a key role by working with the vice chancellor and ultimately endorsing the strategy. However, most members of the councils of Australia’s universities do not have the skillset to develop or skilfully assess organisational-level strategy. Most members are volunteer appointees selected to represent a constituency. Few of these members have, nor are they required to have, any experience in strategy development. Thus, most university strategies are never stress-tested prior to their endorsement by the chief governing body of the university.

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previous chapter The University Strategy Narrative: Advertisement, Story or Blueprint?
next chapter What Is Strategy?
Footnotes
1
C. Lorenz, “If You’re So Smart, Why Are You under Surveillance? Universities, Neoliberalism, and New Public Management”, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 38 (2012), 599–629.
 
2
For example, university annual reports tabled in the NSW State Parliament indicated that in 2011 professor Stephen Schwartz of Macquarie University received bonuses totalling $462,240 in a total salary of $1,184,661; professor Michael Spence of the University of Sydney received a performance bonus of $167,432 out of his salary of $911,575; and Professor Fred Hilmer of UNSW received $847,599 with no bonuses.
 
3
J. Albrechtsen, “Wrong head rolled over a uni blue still smouldering”, The Australian (25–26 May, 2019), p. 26.
 
4
R. Scott, How University Boards Work (Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press, 2018).
 
5
Reported in S. Leih and D. Teece, “Campus Leadership and the Entrepreneurial University: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective”, Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2016), p. 199.
 
6
This often leads to what is known as the Noah’s Ark solution, whereby as the Good Governance Code referred to notes, that the council should have one of those, two of those and some of those.
 
7
The saying “the fish rots from the head” was made popular by B. Garratt, The Fish Rots from the Head: The Crisis in our Boardrooms: Developing the Crucial Skills of the Competent Director (London: Profile Books, 2003).
 
Metadata
Title
University Governance: Weak at the Top
Authors
Timothy Devinney
Grahame Dowling
Copyright Year
2020
Publisher
Springer Nature Singapore
Book
The Strategies of Australia’s Universities

Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3396-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-15-3397-6

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3397-6_3

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