Transcript Slide 1

The “post white paper” governance
challenge for student governors
Jim Dickinson
Director of Policy and Delivery
National Union of Students
This Session
• Examine purposes and meanings of
Governance in HE
• Examine implications of the white paper for
Governance
• Examine the challenges that creates for
you
• Examine some behavioural strategies for
overcoming the challenges
Just to say…
• Most of the make up of Governing Bodies is “received
wisdom”.
• I think your role (and mine here) is partly to question
“received wisdom”
• These are not necc views of NUS- but they are from an
NUS/Student “perspective”
• Governance is exciting principally because it is about
power
• Power is supposed to be moving into the hands of the
student consumer.
STUDENT POWER!
• You are partly a member of the academic
community
• You are partly a paying customer
• The first implies “Voice Power”
• The second implies “Exit power”
• There is a problem with exit (or complaint)
in HE
•
•
•
•
Current university governance arrangements are “ramshackle” and should be
replaced with a two-tier system in which separate “courts” represent staff and
student interests.
That is the view of Roger Brown, professor of higher education policy at
Liverpool Hope University. In a speech… the corporate model of governance
that has been promoted by the Government since the 1980s “will not do” for
higher education.
Under the corporate model, governing boards are as small as possible, have a
lay majority (ideally with business expertise), limited staff and student
representation and are distanced from universities’ work.
The drive towards this structure has resulted in unaccountable governing
bodies that are “on the one hand, not small, expert or time-committed enough
to be able to take effective decisions, but are, on the other hand, not large and
democratic enough to be properly representative of the institution and its
stakeholders”, Professor Brown will say.
Two Traditions
• Two traditions
– Self help/mutualism and
– Charity
• Charity- Philanthropy by the well to do
• Mutuality- Centred on working class
traditions- credit unions etc
• Unincorporated associations
• Mutuality dies out across 20C, Charity grows
Two traditions
• The two traditions are accompanied by
different forms of Governance
• Mutuals are run by members (sometimes with
external input)
• Charities are run by “the great and the good”
(sometimes with beneficiary input)
• HEIs mix the two
Two traditions
• The academic “stuff” is run as a mutual (of
academics)
• The infrastructure is run as a charity to
empower the above (TGATG)
• You are not an academic
• You are not member of the TGATG
• You are also not great
• You are also not good
So why are you there
•
•
•
•
•
(Coproduction with academics)
Symbolism
To end occupations of the 1970s
Insights (as opposed to evidence)
Other Governors like you
• Also: You can test link between macro and micro
Classic Student Challenges
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“What’s the students’ view on X or Y”
Students’ Union Scrutiny
The tyranny of politeness
The focus on Scrutiny, Performance and
Compliance (to the detriment of EC&M)
Multiple hat role syndrome
The legitimacy of an opinion tends to be linked to
the age of its deliverer
Same old brand new you
The whole process in a single paper
The white paper
• The most important issues in the White Paper
for Governors are Markets and Places
– Greater competition for student numbers will be
stimulated
– New entrants supported to enter the market for
higher education provision
– “Punish” the “Greedy”, “Cause” some managed
“Failure”, “Reward” the “Bright”
• Governance is about governing institutional
behaviour
Institutional behaviour
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
How is the institution run and managed?
Fee setting
Market positioning
Provision choices
Batten down the hatches?
Take risks and secure competitive advantage?
Uniquely you can offer a view on Institutional behaviour
from both a strategic (moral/political) viewpoint and a
day to day viewpoint (did this really affect us)
Governance and Power
• Governing Bodies exercise considerable
power on behalf of others
• Educational Character and Mission
• In theory HE reforms dilute that power
• In practice power to choose market(s)
position more important than ever
Governance Paradox
Who Governs?
Representative v Professional Boards
“But there is, and will continue to be, a tension between the
management driven and output related approach which is
central to many recent changes, and the need for organisations
providing public services to involve, respond to, and reflect the
concerns of the communities which they serve”
Nolan 1996
Representative/Professional
• Community Representation in public and
voluntary organisations achieved through
election or stakeholder selection
• Defined as the VS Board “legitimacy”
• Example: FE College Corporations
– Stakeholder Bodies with selected membership
– Tension in skills/knowledge mix
– Limited elections (staff and students)
Representative/Professional
Legitimacy: “Effectiveness” & “Accountability”
Move toward managerialism
80’s education reform- Black papers
Quangos- removing democratic accountability
Pendulum swings back- “Making accountability
real”
• Carver’s “Moral Ownership”
•
•
•
•
•
Representative/Professional
• The legitimate board- effective and accountable
• Effectiveness
–
–
–
–
–
–
do you know what you are doing with my money?
training & support (internal?)
accidentalism?
standard?
support for processes
effective processes
Representative/Professional
• The accountable board
– Transparency & openness
– External audit and evaluation
– Benchmarking
– Forums for consultation
– The replicating “board” classes
– Celebrating diversity
Delegate/Trustee
Delegate representation.
•
elected officials do exactly what they think the people who elected them want them to do.
•
elected officials are merely "delegates" who mirror the preferences of the voters, and bring little
interpretative initiative to their tasks as representatives.
•
The advantage of this notion of representation is that it is transparent and honest: you get what you pay
for.
•
The disadvantage is that a "delegate" is no better than the people who put him or her into office. If
voters are shortsighted or irrational, then their representative will merely translate those attributes into
public policy. If the student body were a campus of heroin addicts, then our elected officers would be
busy getting clean needles!
Trustee representation.
•
This means that elected officials do what they think is best for the people, which may not be what the
people themselves want!
•
In this sense, representatives treat their position as a form of public trust. The advantage of this view of
representation is that it starts from some notion of the public good that exists above the selfish interests
of individuals. It holds out the idea that representative government may correct for the shortsighted or
irrational tendencies of the electorate. It also recognises a role for merit, and meritocracies, in public
affairs.
•
The most obvious expressed disadvantage is that "trustees'" might themselves begin to act in an
autocratic, self-interested, or even corrupt manner. Who rules the rulers? At the very least, the idea of
'"trustee" representation rests upon the undemocratic premise that average people are incapable of
managing their own affairs, and require the leadership of people wiser and more talented than they.
Performance/Conformance
• Conformance (Compliance)
– H&S, Law, Regulation
– Attention to detail, exercise of care, skills in monitoring,
evaluation reporting
• Performance
– Setting mission & character, vision
– Vision, Strategic Thinking, Risk Taking, Pro Activity
Control/Partner
Controlling/Partnering Management
Consent, Difference, Dissensus
CEO’s- level of support they get
Setting agendas, deciding how issues presented,
controlling information
• Professional status- definitions of “expertise”
External support and careful analysis
• Codes of standards
•
•
•
•
Governance
• Greater
“Staff and student
participation (and that of
parents in sixth form
colleges) in governance
may work best within
this approach”
Interest Definitions
The Board resolves competing interests
• “The interests of Students/Academics/University”
• “The interests of the public expressed through regulators”
• “The interests of the funder”
• Negative take- manipulable by the funder
• Medium take- range of interests defined by the funder
• Positive take- charity donation to an autonomous self help
group
• Role of students’ money- student as consumer/diversity profile of
spender/involver
• Boards having multiple accountabilities
Some other thoughts
• We tend to be inducted into “norms”
• Unless your SLT is “perfect” something has to
change as a result of your scrutiny
• Confidentiality and reserved business can be
amorphous
• We can tend to be process and culture victims
(structure, paper, customs, culture, jargon)
• We tend to be told that the interests of students
are mutually exclusive of the interests of the HEI
• It’s not that you have a tough job.
• It’s that if a clerk and a chair create the conditions
for you to feel confident then governance will
succeed.
• If not, a culture of professional politeness will
ensure that you blame the system and lay trustees
blame themselves for shallow participation.
Classic Student Challenges
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
“What’s the students’ view on X or Y”
Students’ Union Scrutiny (Biting the hand that feeds)
The tyranny of politeness
The focus on Scrutiny, Performance and Compliance (to
the detriment of EC&M)
Multiple hat role syndrome
Same old brand new you
The legitimacy of an opinion tends to be linked to the
age of its deliverer
The whole process in a single paper
Classic Student Challenges
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
“What’s the students’ view
• Have you ever
on X or Y”
experienced any of
Students’ Union Scrutiny
these?
(Biting the hand that feeds)
• What do you think you
The tyranny of politeness
can do to overcome
The focus on Scrutiny,
them?
Performance and Compliance
(to the detriment of EC&M)
Multiple hat role syndrome
Same old brand new you
The legitimacy of an
opinion tends to be linked
to the age of its deliverer
The whole process in a
single paper
Voice and Exit
• ECM has previously been seen as being about “class” and “looking
up”, League tables and memories, mission statements
• It’s also about the nature of the relationship between the state, the
student, the academic, the community and the university SMT
• That means a critical examination of (for example) student rights
and power, entitlements and responsibilities
• As the nature of the financial transactions change, so should culture
internally
• And remember to be wary about autonomy. It is not a legal
requirement to believe in it (just to exercise it)