Perceptions of Faculty Leadership in University Governance: A Case Study

Abstract

University governance is a core issue of higher education, and faculty plays a critical role. In a structured interview, 10 faculty members from a case university in central China elaborate on their university’s governance structure and their own leadership in university governance. One distinctive feature revealed is that there are dual authorities: political and administrative. Although the faculty members believe they have some impact on the governance of curriculum, faculty governance, student governance, and organizational governance, the actual practice is different. The faculty members have less of a say in final decisions, and their leadership is often impinged upon by their administrators (including academic leaders with administrative functions). In spite of this, all of the interviewees still feel that they should participate in university governance and seek more involvement in final decisions. This article concludes with suggestions on effective governance practices for universities.

Keywords:

• Chinese higher education
• faculty leadership
• shared governance
• university governance

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their heartful gratitude to the editor and the reviewers for improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China “Research on the formation mechanism and governance strategy of discipline ecology in first-class universities from the perspective of culture” (BIA180211).