Reconfiguring education and research in the European Higher Education Area

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the reconfigurations of education and research within the European Higher Education Area. While higher education systems and institutions are pointed out as key to competitively positioning Europe in the global context, the articulations between education, research and innovation are reconfigured. Based on discourse analysis, the articulations between nodal points - education, research and innovation - associated with the discourses on mobility and employability, made visible the weight of innovation promoted by economic policy drivers. The analysis challenges the relevance attributed to innovation and its major economic prospects as it hinders the broader educational and social potential of the political achievements of European Higher Education Area related to mobility and employability. Keywords: education; research; innovation; European higher education are

Models of Higher Education Governance in Europe: From ‘Organised Anarchy’ to Business-Corporate Organisations

This article discusses the shift from collegial governance of higher education systems and institutions to managerial governance in articulation with the change from state control regulation to the state supervision models. The rise of boardism (i.e. the strengthening of managerial approach to governance and the decrease of the power of academics) influenced by the development of New Public Management approaches is convened to identify the models of European higher education governance. Moreover, under the framework of the increasing digitalisation of management and governance of higher education, the future(s) of higher education institutions as business-corporate organisations is/are debated. While the academy’s ability to deal with external demands is considered, the introduction of new principles underlining the power of managers over academics emphasizes the decrease of academics’ power in governance and management practices

Changes in governance : do they help overcome barriers to the implementation of the european standards and guidelines for quality assurance in higher education?

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Oportunidades e ameaças de Bolonha (um processo em curso) e a universidade europeia (um projecto em discurso) num contexto de globalização

O estabelecimento da área europeia de ensino superior é um objectivo válido e é objecto de reflexão no sentido de analisar os instrumentos a utilizar na sua prossecução. Os efeitos da globalização podem forçar à harmonização dos sistemas de ensino superior que, por sua vez, se levado às suas consequências extremas, pode gerar um processo de mercadorização do ensino, levando a que o discurso sobre a competitividade no ensino superior se reduza ao preço que vai ser praticado num mercado da educação. Nestas circunstâncias, vão ser confrontadas formas que poderão melhorar a competitividade a atractividade da área europeia de ensino superior, mas salvaguardando a diversidade e a diferenciação dos sistemas europeus de ensino superior.Considerando que o processo de Bolonha causa dúvidas sobre as suas consequências, nomeadamente ao nível da preparação das instituições de ensino superior para os desafios da globalização, procura-se um conjunto de análises que nos permitam estudar os pontos fortes e pontos fracos do processo de Bolonha, numa perspectiva sistémica.A criação de uma área europeia de ensino superior é, também, abordada como mais um passo na integração europeia, sendo por isso crucial perceber se o processo de Bolonha dá ou não resposta adequada às universidades europeias para interagirem com o novo paradigma da globalização para a definição das políticas do ensino superior.The establishment of a european higher education area is a defensible objective and shall be discussed hereafter as far as the tools used for its implementation are concerned. The effects of globalisation might force the harmonisation of higher education systems, which on its turn may lead to the commodification of education when considering its utmost principles. In this case, competitiveness in higher education may be limited to the price to be paid in the education market. Under these circumstances, several scenarios shall be considered which enable the enhancement of competitiveness and attractiveness of the european higher education area, preserving however the diversity and differentiation of the european higher education systems.Considering that the Bologna process casts doubt on its consequences, especially as far as the preparation of higher education institutions to the challenges of globalisation is concerned, we seek to provide a range of analyses that enable us to study the strengths and weaknesses of the Bologna process from a systemic perspective.The creation of a european higher education area being regarded as one leap towards the european integration, it is vital to understand whether the Bologna process provides the european universities with an adequate answer that enables them to interact with the new globalisation paradigm for the definition of higher education policies

The long road : how evolving institutional governance mechanisms are changing the face of quality in Portuguese higher education

While a lot has been written regarding the changing management and governance arrangements in higher education, less is known about how this progression relates to quality in higher education. The purpose of this article is to describe the context of governance in Portuguese higher education institutions and how institutional governance arrangements impact on quality and quality assurance mechanisms of higher education. The study is based on four institutional cases studies, comprising two universities and two polytechnic institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers, middle managers, academics and students from Arts and Engineering, and documentary analysis was undertaken. The main findings show that national and institutional features of governance and management may influence the implementation of quality policy and procedures, and indeed quality improvement. The different institutional actors seem to be aware of the dynamic nature of the equilibrium between positive and negative impacts and recognise the need for checks and balances in the governance and management structures of higher education institutions, especially between collegial and managerial facets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio