Rosalind M. O. Pritchard & Attila Pausits 
Positioning Higher Education Institutions 
From Here to There

Higher education is of growing public and political importance for society and the economy. Globalisation is transforming it from a local and national concern into one of international significance. In order to fulfil societal, governmental and business sector needs, many universities are aiming to (re-)position themselves. The book initially considers their “compass”. They aspire to transformational planning, mission and strategy in which social justice is important, people are not treated as mere means to an end, and traditional moral positions are respected. This transformational urge is sometimes vitiated by blunt demands of new public management that overlook universities’ potential for serving the public good. The volume then addresses universities’ success in meeting their targets. Often the challenge in evaluation is the need to reconcile tensions, for example between structure and pastoral care of students; institutional competition and collaboration; roles of academics and administrators; performance-based funding versus increased differentiation. Measurement is supposed to provide discipline, align institutional and state policy, and provide a vital impetus for change. Yet many of these measurement instruments are not fully fit for purpose. They do not take sufficient account of institutional missions, either of “old” or of specialist universities; and sophisticated measurement of the student experience requires massive resources. Change and positioning have become increasingly key elements of a complex but heterogeneous sector requiring new services and upgraded instruments.

Table of Content

Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I: Creating the Institutional Compass: Vision, Values, Mission and Strategies; The Role of Institutional Research in Positioning Universities: Practices in Central and Eastern European Countries; Higher Education Reform: A Systematic Comparison of Ten Countries from a New Public Management Perspective; Rethinking Missions and Values of Higher Education: Insights from the Capability Approach and the Institutional Perspective; On the Structure of the European Standards and Guidelines for Internal Quality Assurance: Reflections Emerging from Their Implementation in Portugal; Quality Management in Arts Universities: Bureaucratic Burden or Sensible Tool for Development?; Mission Statements and Strategic Positioning of Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of 29 German Universities; Exploding the Myth: Literary Analysis of Universities’ Strategic Plans; Part II: Reviewing Institutional Performance and Positioning; Creating a Coherent Performance Indicator Framework for the Higher Education Student Lifecycle in Australia; High-Quality Ph D Supervision: Creating Structure or Supplying Support?; Interacting Spheres Revisited: Academics and Administrators between Dualism and Cooperation; Becoming Ever Better Together? From Scholarly Collaboration to Strategic Cooperation in Higher Education; Does Performance-Based Funding Work? Reviewing the Impacts of Performance-Based Funding on Higher Education Institutions; Performance Orientation for Public Value: Dutch Myths and Realities in an International Perspective; Comparing Costs between Higher Education Institutions in Norway; Index.