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Reviewing the effectiveness of the Governing Body Adolygu effeithiolrwydd y Corff Llywodraethu. Allan Schofield Key Associate, Leadership Foundation. This Session. Introduction and context. ‘Effectiveness for what?’: the need to clarify the primary roles of a governing body.
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Reviewing the effectiveness of the Governing BodyAdolygu effeithiolrwydd y Corff Llywodraethu Allan Schofield Key Associate, Leadership Foundation
This Session • Introduction and context. • ‘Effectiveness for what?’: the need to clarify the primary roles of a governing body. • Trends in governance structures to enhance effectiveness. • Reviewing governing body effectiveness: the LF/CUC Effectiveness Framework. • The future: generic challenges to governing body effectiveness. • Questions and discussion.
2 ‘Effectiveness for what?’: the need to clarify the primary roles of a governing body • Genuine differences of view remain about the roles of the governing body in HEIs. • Effectiveness goes well beyond governance codes and statements of responsibilities – important as they are. • Effectiveness is about ‘how governing bodies work’ as well as ‘what they do’. • The need for clarity about primary roles underpins all aspects of governance including structure, board engagement, understanding accountability in practice, etc. • Boards need to understand the differences of view about role amongst their membership.
3 Trends in governance structures to enhance effectiveness • Greater diversity in governance: the different jurisdictions; Privy Council flexibility; private providers; etc. • Substantial innovation: smaller boards; fewer committees; lead governors; performance orientation; powers to remunerate; possible two tier approaches; etc. • Governor recruitment: greater emphasis on recruiting high quality external governors and supporting them. • The student voice: how to make student engagement in governance work. • Challenging the assumption of an institutional focus on governance: the downside of ambiguity about accountability.
4 Reviewing governing body effectiveness: the LF/CUC Effectiveness Framework • 2011 LF/CUC project produced a framework to identify the factors influencing board effectiveness in HE. • 16 volunteer governing bodies of HEIs validated the framework in conducting their own effectiveness reviews. • For details see www.lfhe.ac.uk/governance/ reviewinggovernance/project.html. • The framework supports effectiveness reviews but doesn’t do the job for HEIs! It is not a checklist and is not to be used mechanistically. • Its use requires openness and transparency from governing bodies and an executive.
The future: generic challenges to governing body effectiveness • Greater transparency, and public and political attention: but avoiding the dangers of the politicisation of governance. • Enhancing the role of the governing body in academic and student matters: the implications of students as customers. • Getting institutional engagement in governance whilst making governance quicker and more responsive. • Exercising shared leadership through governance. • The need for all boards to have robust means of reviewing their effectiveness, including through the use of externals.