Cipes and Universidade do Porto

1. Cipes Embedding libraries in learning and research 27th IATUL Annual Conference 22-25 May 2006 Alberto Amaral Cipes and Universidade do Porto

2. Introduction Cipes The University, a multi-secular institution Many of us will remember that Clark Kerr (1982), examining Western World institutions already established in 1520 and still existing today in a recognisable form, performing similar activities without interruption, counted some 85 institutions including the Catholic Church, the Parliaments of the Island of Man, Iceland and Great Britain, some Swiss cantons and 70 Universities! IATUL, 2006 1

3. Introduction Cipes This long permanence of the University is explained in terms of some of its characteristics, all of them related to the fact that knowledge is its core business The power of professional experts Organisational fragmentation in terms of disciplinary areas IATUL, 2006 The extreme diffusion of the decision making power The authority lies at the bottom, with professional academics 2

4. Introduction Cipes Over the last few decades, the University is being faced with new and more demanding challenges. Globalisation and New Right policies are having considerable effect upon education IATUL, 2006 The development of the ‘secondary’ welfare state was coterminous with the movement of higher education systems towards massification in many European countries. 3

5. Introduction Cipes The legitimacy crisis of the welfare state. Changes in the traditional implicit pact between the University and society. IATUL, 2006 • There are changes in ideology and of values, and in the relationship between higher education institutions and the state. The ‘market’ emerged as the solution of all these problems. 4

6. Introduction Cipes The University, that place of free and open debate about societal problems has been rather uncritical of the impact of these processes on its own nature and development. • Does this attitude result from loss of the University’s social capital (Dill 1995) or from the dilution of society (Porter 1999)? Or is it a sign of the absenteeism referred by Gramsci? Indifference is actually the mainspring of history. But in a negative sense. […] What comes to pass does so not much because a few people want it to happen, as because the mass of citizens abdicates their responsibility and let things be. […] The fatality that seems to dominate history is precisely the illusory appearance of this indifference, of this absenteeism. (Gramsci 1977: 17) IATUL, 2006 5

7. Globalisation and higher education Cipes Starting in 1944 with the Bretton Woods conference where the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were established, and being reinforced by the Washington consensus and the contribution of the World Trade Organization (WTO), national trade barriers were progressively removed and a global economy emerged. It is in some way fascinating that some economic ideas that are ‘en vogue’ today were developed in the XVIIIth and early XIXth centuries. Adam Smith (1723-1790) is credited with the idea of the invisible hand of the market and David Ricardo (1772-1823) was the first proponent and paladin of unrestricted trade and free commerce. IATUL, 2006 6

8. Globalisation and higher education Cipes Education is today considered more as an indispensable ingredient for economic competition and less as a social right, and it is becoming progressively a service “[…] students are considered consumers and asked to pay higher fees”. Governments exert strong pressures over institutions to make them more responsive to outside demands and to ensure that education and research are ‘relevant’ for the national economy. IATUL, 2006 The market rationale includes a demand-driven orientation, introducing short cycles and emphasis on vocationalization. The Bologna process places strong emphasis on the contribution of higher education to the employability of graduates and to European competitiveness. 7

9. Globalisation and higher education Cipes The market was supposed to heal the wounds caused by the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of state control, and by the weak managerial capacity of elected rectors and public services. Institutions should become more flexible, more autonomous to respond to changes in the organisational environment. IATUL, 2006 • Economic globalisation has increased the role played by market mechanisms in the provision, steering and organisation of higher education. 8

10. Globalisation and higher education Cipes In recent years a new phenomenon emerged in the higher education context, the borderless higher education or transnational higher education. There is not a unanimously accepted definition of these terms. Whatever the definition, it seems that pure e-learning did not meet the expectations of explosive growth. Ryan attributes low student enrolments (with exceptions such as University of Phoenix Online and University of Maryland University College) to a number of factors, the first two being employer reluctance to accept the quality of online programmes and the apparent resistance by many students to the notion of exclusively online education. IATUL, 2006 9

11. Globalisation and higher education However, franchised curricula and overseas campi continue to develop very fast in borderless higher education. This raises problems of consumer protection associated with lack of adequate information available to the potential students, employers and recognition authorities. There is need to eliminate ‘rogue’ providers, degree mills and bogus institutions. Cipes Some organisations (UNESCO, Council of Europe) produced codes of good practice and countries that are exporters of higher education (US, UK, Australia) established codes of ethical and/or good practice for the assurance of academic quality in the provision of education to foreign students. Those countries want to ensure that the behaviour of their national institutions does not tarnish the reputation of the country’s higher education system, which could forsake new market opportunities. IATUL, 2006 10

12. Globalisation and higher education Cipes Another development was the movement, under the leadership of the US and the support of some English speaking countries, to include higher education in the GATS trade agreements, which would make education a service that could be sold across national borders without any barriers. The recent attitude of the European Union of excluding higher education from the agreements has stalled this initiative IATUL, 2006 It remains to be seen how long this attitude of the Commission will last, as it contradicts the European intention of becoming a competitor of the US, Japan and Australia in the fast developing international higher education market. 11

13. The increasing role of the market Cipes Over the last two decades, markets assumed an increasing importance in the regulation of the public sector as neo-liberal politicians regard competition as the solution to reform the ‘sclerotic behaviour’ of public services by forcing them to increase their efficiency. Governments are more and more testing the introduction of market-like mechanisms as instruments of public regulation. IATUL, 2006 The Bologna Declaration by “redefining the nature and content of academic programmes, is transforming what were once state monopolies over academic degrees into competitive international markets. 12

14. The increasing role of the market Cipes A quasi-market is in operation when goods or services, instead of being bought by their final users, are bought by an agent (in general a public agent) on behalf of clients to whom these goods and services are then allocated directly. The efficient use of market regulation presents a number of problems. IATUL, 2006 For the allocation of goods and services to be ‘optimally efficient for the larger society’ (Leslie and Johnson 1974), the market needs to be perfectly competitive, which implies a number of conditions that are very difficult to fulfil. 13

15. The increasing role of the market Both government and market regulation may lead to inefficient action. Non-market or government failures are related to the fact that sometimes the government and its agencies are incapable of perfect performance in designing and implementing public policy, because of defects of representative democracy and inefficiencies of public agencies to produce and to distribute goods and services. Cipes Market failures are the shortcomings of markets when confronted with certain goods and conditions, namely those that show large externalities as is the case of education. The concept of externality is used to compare the social and private benefits of any activity, and can be technically defined as the benefit received by society beyond the individual private benefit. IATUL, 2006 14

16. The increasing role of the market As the market is a means of organising the exchange of goods and services based upon price, additional social benefits (externalities) will tend to be ignored, or to be too little taken into account by market mechanisms.. Cipes Other sources of market failures are their tendency to build monopolies resulting in inefficient outcomes, or the so called ‘market imperfections’ such as prices not reflecting product scarcities and insufficient or asymmetric information. IATUL, 2006 One problem of market competition is that it needs perfect information by the producers and the consumers about the relevant characteristics of the good or service being purchased in order to work efficiently. For a market to produce efficient outcomes clients need to make rational economic choices. 15

17. The increasing role of the market Cipes The information problem is very acute in the case of higher education, which has three simultaneous characteristics: a) It is an experience good; • b) It is a rare purchase; IATUL, 2006 • c) It has very high opting-out costs. 16

18. The increasing role of the market Cipes The confluence of the three characteristics of education legitimates a regulatory hand of the government to promote consumer protection, and this includes different forms of information, such as licensing, accreditation, and information on the quality of goods and services. Students lack sufficient information about the quality of academic institutions or programs to make discriminating choices as what they need is the measure of prospective future earnings provided by alternative academic programmes... IATUL, 2006 ... not peer review evaluation of teaching processes, nor subjective judgements of the quality of a curriculum. 17

19. The increasing role of the market Cipes Even if this kind of data were available, many students (or their families) would not use it, which questions the validity of the rational economic choices. This is what David Dill calls the problem of immature consumers. The problem of immature students is the rationale for “the implementation of quasi-markets, rather than consumer-oriented markets, for the distribution of academic programs.” IATUL, 2006 It is assumed that the state trough a government agency is more capable of protecting the interests of immature consumers than consumers themselves. 18

20. The increasing role of the market Cipes Therefore, the state is no longer a provider of higher education but assumes a role as principal representing the interests of the consumers by making contracts with competing institutions. This creates a quasi-market in which the state becomes a purchaser of services from independent providers, which compete with each other in an internal market. IATUL, 2006 Government agencies making the purchases in the name of consumers face the classical principal-agent dilemma: “how the principal [government] can best motivate the agent [university] to perform as the principal would prefer, taking into account the difficulties in monitoring the agent’s activities. 19

21. The increasing role of the market Cipes Massy argues “[…] the way institutions currently respond to markets and seek internal efficiencies, left unchecked, is unlikely to serve the public good” (Massy 2004b: 28), a danger that is exacerbated by excessive competition or by retrenchment operations. This forces the state to intervene by changing the rules of the market to ensure the fulfilment of its own political objectives (the interfering state). IATUL, 2006 That is why governments have been introducing an increasing number of performance indicators and measures of academic quality. 20

22. The increasing role of the market Better information is also important for producer effectiveness: “Information on the quality of a product provides an incentive for producers to invest in quality improvements and thereby better compete in the market.” Cipes Both principals and student consumers may have imperfect information about the true quality of academic programmes – that is, the value added they provide to the student and ultimately to society – but, because of the distinctive properties of universities, the producers may have imperfect quality information as well. Because of traditions of academic autonomy and specialisation, professors may also lack sufficient information to judge the quality of academic programmes and may as a consequence fail to improve them. IATUL, 2006 21

23. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust Over the last two decades, the intrusion of the rhetoric and management practices of the private sector into higher education resulted in important changes in the operation of higher education institutions. Cipes These changes are associated to a movement, from the public good concept of knowledge to one of commercialisation and ‘private’ ownership, that challenges many traditional academic values, such as the ideal that knowledge should be free and universal. IATUL, 2006 Traditional university governance became the target of fierce criticism, and the multi-secular tradition of collegial governance is today considered inefficient. corporative. 22

24. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust ‘New managerialism’ exerts strong pressures for changing the organisation of higher education institutions, mainly by limiting collegial power at all institutional levels: central administration, schools and departments. It is claimed that collegial power promotes and reproduces corporative instincts that result in irrational and inefficient decisions. Cipes Only the (partial or total) replacement of the collegial model by an integrated management model will transform higher education institutions into professional organisations “oriented towards the product”, with strong emphasis on pursuing measurable objectives and targets. IATUL, 2006 23

25. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust The advocates of ‘new managerialism’ claim that the introduction of market mechanisms in the management of public services “[…] would provide that imperative drive towards operational efficiency and strategic effectiveness so conspicuously lacking in the sclerotic professional monopolies and corporate bureaucracies that continued to dominate public life”. Cipes Under new public management the public are clients of government, and administrators should seek to deliver services that satisfy clients. In higher education, too, students are referred to as customers or clients, and in most higher education systems quality assurance and accountability measures have been put in place to ensure that academic provision meets client needs and expectations. IATUL, 2006 24

26. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust Models were imported from the corporate world trying to replace the slow, inefficient decision making processes of academic collegiality. Cipes • The reinforced presence of external stakeholders in university governance intends to promote responsiveness to the ‘external world’ and appointed Presidents with sound managerial curricula are replacing elected academics at the rudder of the university vessel. IATUL, 2006 Entrepreneurial values and attitudes are forced upon the academics and tenure is being abolished on the grounds that it inhibits the business spirit. 25

27. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust • The development of academic capitalism and the introduction of market-like competition mechanisms forces professors, departments, and faculties to increasingly engage “in competitive behaviour similar to the one prevailing in the marketplace for funding, grants, contracts, and student selection and funding”. Cipes • The emergence of the new public management and the attacks on the efficiency of public services including higher education resulted in loss of trust in institutions. IATUL, 2006 The final result of this process was the reinforcement of quality assessment mechanisms and the current move from assessment to accreditation. 26

28. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust One consequence of new public management policies appears to be a strong attack on the professions, and specifically on the academic profession. Cipes The academy no longer enjoys great prestige on which higher education can build a successful claim to political autonomy (Scott 1989). One observes the gradual proletarisation of the academic professions – an erosion of their relative class and status advantages (Halsey 1992). Patent policies also made faculty more like all other worker, making faculty, staff and students less like university professionals and more like corporate professionals whose discoveries are considered work-for-hire, the property of the corporation, not the professional. IATUL, 2006 27

29. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust • The ‘de-professionalisation’ of academics has been coupled with a claim to professional status by administrative staff. Cipes • Thirty years ago administrators were “very much expected to operate in a subservient supportive role to the academic community, very much in a traditional Civil Servant mould” (Amaral et al 2003: 286) and in the meetings of the academia they were expected to be seen but not to be heard. Today, managers for their part see themselves as essential professional contributors to the successful functioning of the contemporary university. IATUL, 2006 Institutions are increasingly using micromanagement mechanisms to respond to outside pressures. 28

30. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust Cipes • Management control technologies include systems for evaluation and performance measurement of research, teaching and some administrative activities, particularly those linked to finance. • The replacement of values associated with autonomy and academic freedom by criteria of economic rationality (Miller, 1995; Harley & Lowe, 2003; Slaugther & Leslie, 1997), coincides with closer scrutiny of the performance of professionals. IATUL, 2006 The explicit control of academic work through evaluation replaces trust in professionalism, formerly based upon individual self-regulation, implicit quality criteria and peer review. 29

31. New Public Management, governance and loss of trust Cipes • The loss of trust in academics is also related to the massification process. • The pressures for the direct assessment of the quality of teaching, arise chiefly out of the emergence of mass higher education and its effects on both teachers and students IATUL, 2006 There is (Trow) a greater emphasis on teaching as a distinct skill that itself can be taught (and assessed), and places the student and the process of learning, rather than the subject, at the center of the educational enterprise, a Copernican revolution. 30

32. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes At the level of national higher education systems, similar political reforms seem to be taking place all over the world. The criticism of traditional academic norms and values, the reinforcement of the economic role of higher education, the emergence of new managerialism or the professionalisation of institutional management, the increasing role of external stakeholders, the diversification of funding sources and the rolling-back of public funding, financing becoming increasingly dependent upon evaluation according to ‘criteria of performativity’ linked to economic needs, the increasing primacy of ‘relevance’ of teaching and research, all taken together, compose a common picture that cannot be explained solely by “the functional, national-cultural or rational–instrumental theories that have dominated the study of education systems or the curriculum hitherto. IATUL, 2006 31

33. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • World institutionalists developed the argument that the institutions of the nation-state, including the state itself, are moulded at a supranational level by the dominant values and processes of the Western ideology, rather than being autonomous and specific national creations. • Others see globalisation as “a set of political-economic arrangements for the organisation of the global economy, driven by the need to retain the capitalist system rather than any set of values. IATUL, 2006 In industrial advanced countries, adherence to the new principles of globalisation result from a pragmatic view of national self interest, a widespread belief that there is no alternative to globalisation and by political economic leverage. 32

34. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • In developing countries, the stark reality of an increasing gap separating them from the more affluent countries and their frequent dramatic economic situation, places them in the hands of the Bretton Woods organisations, which condition international loans to the strict adherence to free trade and public funding avarice. • To understand the process of international convergence of higher education systems, one can ignore neither the dynamics of globalisation and the hegemony of neo-liberal discourses and policies (Torres and Schugurensky 2002), nor the role of national governments in trying to establish conditions for national prosperity and inclusion among the winners of the game of globalisation. IATUL, 2006 33

35. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • Supranational economic forces, reinforced by capital mobility, contribute to shaping and constraining those conditions in a greater or lesser degree, which explains the important effects of globalisation on national education systems. • On the other hand, the international economic imperative to remain competitive in the global market, although playing a major role, does not fully explain the convergence of higher education reforms in different societies. It is also necessary to consider “the role of corporate foundations and supranational institutions in fostering particular reforms impacting higher education” IATUL, 2006 34

36. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • Ball (1998) explains the dissemination of these “universal” influences internationally using Levin’s (1998) medical metaphor and by the sponsorship or even enforcement of particular policy solutions by multilateral agencies (Jones 1998). • Levin (1988) epidemiological model draws an analogy between the present education policy transfers and the spread of a disease, where international experts, policy entrepreneurs, and representatives of organisations selling tailor-made miraculous solutions for national problems are the analogues of infectious agents moving from country to country looking for suitable hosts. IATUL, 2006 35

37. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • One sees that at least at “macro level” higher education systems apparently are converging all over the world, although at micro level strong local and national characteristics have been retained that play against uniformity.. • According to Halpin and Troyna “countries seem to be doing similar things, but on closer examination they are not as similar as it first appeared.” IATUL, 2006 National characteristics still play an important role, even when internal reforms of the systems are legitimated, at least at rhetoric level, by the country’s need of assuming a position in the increasingly globalised. 36

38. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • National specificities are mediated by state actions, which paradoxically enhance internally its regulation strength. This apparent paradox between the external weakening of sovereignty and internal strengthening of the state can be seen in the implementation of Bologna process in which the European political objectives are masked by national interests as each country reverts to a national logic to fulfil national objectives. IATUL, 2006 • Convergence takes place mainly at the highest international level, by setting a common agenda for the political management of higher education systems. However, when governments implement national policies they are influenced by national characteristics and by their own internal political agenda. At global level this produces a disarray of political objectives that play against convergence. 37

39. System level and institutional level convergence • What is the influence of the apparent process of international convergence of higher education systems at institutional level? Trying to answer this question one will resort to neo-institutional theories without ignoring “that new institutionalism suffers from an under appreciation of diversity” Cipes • There are three categories of isomorphism: coercive, mimetic, and normative. Coercive isomorphism is largely imposed from outside the organisation – governmental regulation and the dominance of cultural expectations may impose standardisation. Mimetic isomorphism results from copying those organisations regarded as successful – bench-marking exercises or the use of a limited pool of advisors may result in copying similar organisations. Normative isomorphism arises where members of the organisation impose internally the dominant norms they are socialized with. IATUL, 2006 39

40. System level and institutional level convergence • The state is viewed as the main originator of coercive forces. At the level of higher education systems the similarity of reforms taking place all over the world, is in part due to globalisation. However, as the state is responsible for the implementation of those reforms through law enactment and other regulation mechanisms, one may consider the state responsible for exerting strong pressures over institutions favouring their isomorphism. Cipes IATUL, 2006 • There are also supranational organisations or movements that originate coercive forces. An example is the European Bologna process that aims at promoting the convergence of the European national higher education systems to create a European area of higher education. 40

41. System level and institutional level convergence • International organisations holding the ‘power of the purse’ (WB and IMF) can originate strong isomorphic pressures. Other international agencies such as OECD and UNESCO can influence governments by means of international surveys and analyses. Cipes • Universities are complex organisations and it is difficult to determine the relative weights of coercive/non-coercive categories of isomorphism that explain their behaviour. If a university belonging to a country negotiating a World Bank loan decides to present itself as an ‘entrepreneurial’ university what is the relative mix of coercive and non-coercive isomorphism? Is the university paving its way to a share of the loan? Is the university ‘persuaded’ by the lending agency? Did the academic staff become socialised with the idea of ‘entrepreneurship’? Did the university decide to copy another example of success? IATUL, 2006 41

42. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • Other examples of coercive/non-coercive mix are found in ‘academic drift’ (Levy 1999) and in the loss of diversity due to the unification of former higher education binary systems in the UK and Australia. Academic drift may result from less prestigious institutions (polytechnics) trying to emulate the more prestigious universities (mimetic isomorphism) and/or from increasing percentage of new university graduates – socialised to the practices of traditional academic culture – in the academic staff (normative isomorphism). IATUL, 2006 42

43. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes • At micro level there are conflicting pressures bearing on institutions. On the one hand, the new emphasis on strategic planning and mission statements may result in the definition of institutional identities that will protect diversity. This may be reinforced by defensive institutional strategies in looking for particular market niches and by a closer link of universities to regional development. IATUL, 2006 • On the other hand, there are strong isomorphic pressures acting both at global level and at national. Some activities imported from the business world such as benchmarking, quality evaluation and accreditation, as well as competitive funding mechanisms may reinforce isomorphic pressures, namely if some of these activities assume an international character. 43

44. System level and institutional level convergence Cipes What is probably happening in higher education institutions is the emergence of a hybridised model of organisational structure and decision-making processes. This phenomenon can for instance be observed in the coexistence of management teams, or managers (for information, for quality, etc.) with more traditional modes of academic administration (peer review, progression in the academic career based upon judgments by peers and collegiality in a number of decisions). IATUL, 2006 44

45. Conclusion Cipes • At this moment I remind myself of the wise words of Guy Neave (1995), to avoid any temptation of acting like an old seer. Neave considers that if the forecasts are for the very near future one runs the risk of being contradicted by reality. If they are cautiously made for the very long future no one will have the patience to worry about them. To make prophecies less reliable and seers less confident, it happens that the university is a very complex institution that interacts with its environment and influences policy implementation. Therefore I will limit myself to a few short concluding remarks about the future of higher education. IATUL, 2006 45

46. Conclusion Cipes • The behaviour of individual institutions is difficult to forecast. Social organisations in general, and universities in particular, are too complex for their behaviour to be fully explained by any theory so far developed. Organisations respond in diverse ways to external change and expectations and the government is not “an almighty actor that can deterministically prescribe changes in the management structures, culture and function of higher education institutions”. Therefore, the implementation of policies at micro level will introduce further randomness in the final results of the highereducation global agenda.ducation global agenda. IATUL, 2006 46

47. Conclusion Cipes • In relation to a decade ago there are today much stronger pressures favouring the convergence of higher education systems. However, there are strong local and national characteristics that play against uniformity and are slowing down convergence processes. Some authors even argue that ‘globalisation’ is not incompatible with some forms of diversity.. IATUL, 2006 47

48. Conclusion Cipes The logic of globalisation tolerates, indeed requires, the promotion of cultural (and possibly political) difference and diversity. Globalisation will build on diversity and needs to work through patterns that seem paradoxical – both global and decentred – forms of social organization, which convey powerful symbolic images of choice, freedom and diversity. (Jones 1998: 149) IATUL, 2006 48

49. Conclusion Cipes The influence of new public management may not yet be readily visible in higher education institutions. On the one hand there are signs, observable in institutional discourses and practices, indicating that “managerialism” is winning some ground from traditional academic management. On the other hand there is resistance from many academics sceptical of the new organisational forms. IATUL, 2006 49

50. Conclusion Cipes There will be an increasing competition between higher education institutions and national systems for national and foreign students and for research funding, which will result in an increasing stratification of the higher education systems, nationally and in the new integrated spaces (European Union, Mercosul, etc.). International organisations such as UNESCO, the OECD and the European Commission are already playing with rankings, league tables and classifications of universities. This will also lead to concentration of the research function in a small number of institutions and the proliferation of teaching-only institutions. IATUL, 2006 50