Identifying the influence of university governance on campus management: lessons from the Netherlands and Poland

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to describe the effects of university governance on campus management based on the examples of the Netherlands and Poland. The study connected theory on campus management with a concept of five dimensions of university governance (autonomy, management, participation, accountability and transparency) into an innovative and coherent analytical framework. Based on a qualitative approach, legal regulations and all public universities’ campus goals in both countries were analysed. The results indicate that university governance and each of its five dimensions stir consequences on campus management. This suggests that any university governance reforms should take real estate and facilities into account. Disregarding them can lead to universities’ suboptimal decisions and consequently affect (directly or indirectly) their sustainable development, productivity, profitability and competitive advantage. An understanding of the presented conception is crucial for the construction of viable higher education policy and improvement of universities performance.

KEYWORDS:

• University governance
• autonomy
• campus management
• participation
• accountability and transparency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In this paper we have used the terms ‘universities’ and ‘higher education institutions’ (HEIs) as synonyms, applying very often the terms used in the literature cited. In fact, there are differences in the concept of higher education systems in individual countries.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN) under MINIATURA-1 Grant [DEC-2017/01/X/HS4/01066].