The management function of academics in HEIs in Ireland: attitudes and autonomy .

1. The management function of academics in HEIs in Ireland: attitudes and autonomy. By: Dr YurgosPolitis, Dr Marie Clarke, Dr Jonathan Drennan & Prof Abbey Hyde University College Dublin

2. Sample • Independent samples drawn from each Irish HEI. • National level required a sample of at least 800. • CAP survey proposed a design effect of 2.0 be factored in (i.e. 1,600 academics to be surveyed) • A response rate of 30% was estimated (i.e. 5,333 - rounded up to 5,500 - academics surveyed). • 1,185 final responses (final response rate 22%).

3. 1. Identifying the group that has primary influence on each of the following decisions

5. by Gender

6. by Type of Institution

7. by Academic Status

8. by Academic Discipline Institutional Managers have primary influence: 1. Selecting key administrators 2. Determining budget priorities (Law is the exception – HOS/HOD more prominent) Faculty/College committees/boards have primary influence: • Making promotions/tenure decisions (Engineering/ Education/ Agriculture exception – Managers more prominent) • Approving new academic programmes HOD/HOS have primary influence: 1. Determining teaching load (Agriculture exception–Academics/ Boards equally prominent)

9. by Academic Discipline Academicshave primary influence: • Evaluating teaching (Business – HOS/HOD & Law – students) • Setting internal research priorities (Life Sciences – Managers) • Establishing international linkages Split influence on the issues of: • Choosing new faculty (HOD/HOS – Managers – Boards) • Setting admission standards (Managers – Boards) • Evaluating research (Boards – Academics)

10. Influence by Discipline Institutional Managers have influence across all Disciplines in the areas of “Selecting key administrators” and “Determining budget priorities”. In addition they seem to have influence in Engineering and Agriculture in other areas namely: Choosing Faculty (both); Making promotion and tenure decisions (both); They also seem to have primary influence in “Setting admission standards” in Engineering, Physical Sciences, Law, Social Sciences, Humanities and Education.

11. 2. How influential are you, personally, in helping to shape key academic policies?

12. The scale spans from ‘Not at all influential’ (1) to ‘very influential’ (4) Respondents believe that they have considerable influence at just the level of their School/ Department

13. Breakdown by Academic status • Breakdown by Gender

14. Breakdown by Type of Institution • Breakdown by Discipline Remarkable consistency across all Disciplines

15. 3. Who is regularly evaluating your teaching, research and administration roles?

17. Breakdown by Gender

18. Breakdown by Academic Status

19. Breakdown by Type of Institution

20. Breakdown by Discipline • Evaluation of Teaching: By Peers and HOD/HOS vary significantly, their sum though is remarkably consistent around 50% across all disciplines Self-assessment varies from 28% (Law) to 50% (Medical sciences) • Evaluation of Research: By external reviewers varies enormously from 24% (Engineering) to 71% (Agriculture) • Evaluation of Administration: No formal self-assessment according to respondents from Agriculture

21. 4. Indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statements that relate to relationships and governance at your Institution

23. Breakdown by Gender

24. Breakdown by Academic Status

25. Breakdown by Type of Institution

26. Breakdown by Discipline • Only a third of Law respondents said they have access to CPD for management duties • 38% of Humanities respondents believe there is a supportive attitude of management towards research activities • The percentages of respondents that believe there is a supportive attitude of management towards teaching activities are as low as 18% (Agriculture), 22% (Engineering & Law) and 28% (Life Sciences). • The percentages of respondents that believe there is a burdensome administrative process are as high as 93% (Law), 88% (Agriculture) and 86% (Life Sciences)

27. 5. Indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with the following statements on the role of University management

29. Breakdown by Gender

30. Breakdown by Academic Status

31. Breakdown by Type of Institution

32. Breakdown by Discipline

33. 6. Indicate the extent to which your Institution emphasises the following practices

35. Breakdown by Gender

36. Breakdown by Academic Status

37. Breakdown by Type of Institution

38. Breakdown by Discipline Much higher % of respondents from Agriculture believe their Institution emphasises the following practices: • Performance based allocation of resources to academic units • Evaluation based allocation of resources to academic units • Considering the research quality when making personnel decisions • Funding of departments substantially based on numbers of graduates • Encouraging individuals, businesses, foundations etc. to contribute more to higher education A very small % of respondents from Law believe their Institution: “Recruitesfaculty who have work experience outside of academia”

39. Main Conclusions (Q1) • Institutional managers in Irish HEIs have primary influence in more areas than the individual academics • Institutional managers have almost complete influence in IoTs, whereas individual academics have more influence in Universities • Junior Academics place more influence on institutional managers whereas Senior Academics on Faculty/College Boards/Committees

40. Main Conclusions (Q2) • Irish Academics in our sample feel they have limited influence at College/Faculty and even less at Institutional level • Senior academics feel they have significantly more influence at all levels • Male academics feel they have slightly more influence

41. Main Conclusions (Q3) • Students play key role in academics’ teaching evaluation and External reviewers of research • Female staff engage more in self-assessment • University staff have their research evaluated far more than their IoT counterparts

42. Main Conclusions (Q4, 5 & 6) The academics surveyed expressed the view that: • their Institution has a top-down management style • there is a cumbersome administrative process • there is a diminished sense of collegiality & lack of communication between academics and management. • their lack of involvement in decision-making processes is problematic.

43. In summary, academics surveyed paint a picture of: • a working environment where managers have significant influence over decision-making processes in their Institutions and • there is less coo-operation and communication between academicsand the managerial structure. This is contrasted with Hunt’s (2011) view that: HEIs will need to build institutional capacity to perform new management functions and to strike a balance between the demands of the market and their academic mission.

44. THANK YOU yurgos.politis@gmail.com