Anton KRAMBERGER

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Why members of academic communities may feel uncomfortable with the (mis)management

of HE units after the Bologna reforms?

Main research question (MRQ):

Academic culture & HE management quality after the Bologna?

1. Elaboration of MRQ

2. Hypothetical implications

3. Evidence (ISA blogs)

4. Complications

5. Validity, concluding remarks

Outline

Basic idea:

By Bologna reforms (and EHEA) European universities rapidly populate emerging EU academic quasi-market, driven by competitive academic business units, what requires from them a resource-based type of HE management replacing slowly a traditional profession-centered, collegial-based HE management.

Main RQs:

What are major implications of a resource-based type of management within the (social science) academic space implemented along the Bologna reforms for academic community and its culture?

What is (was) disfunctional with old (mass) univ. systems?

What are good and not so good implications of Bologna?

Main research question

University

Bologna reforms (Knowledge -> Competences)

Academic market (EHEA)

Academic community

Academic management

Resource-based vs profession-based organisation

Key concepts

Qualitative elaboration of research question

Long tradition of universities under pressure: academic communities & its culture

universities as K-transfer&creation device

ethical reflections on social application of (scientific) knowledge

Recent macro changes (after 1960): around academic space (demography, markets, globalisation, ...)

competitive academic space (mass expansion, Clarke model, quality)

new techno-platform for K circulation (ICT & web etc.)

public funding cuts (public down & private up)

academic individualisation (decay of trad. professional communities)

Very recent macro changes (after 2000): Bologna (standardised programs, progression, certificates etc.)

Re-orientation towards resource-based management in HE units

Triple cuts: global crises & resource-based management & SocSci

Conceptual framework UNDERSTANDING PHENOMENA, TRENDS:

Traditional academic communities are (were) relatively autonomus leafs of a

university flower areas, spreading by their specific-area scientific ties across the borders, forming a kind of international professional community, anchored around specific-area academic culture & identity. Coexistence of multiple academic communities & universal cultures within a university. Basically, professions are (were) responsible for collegial management of symbolic life.

Signs: - specific histories of academic units & departments

- past sacrificies of academic members for academic freedom important

- common set of (scientific) professional beliefs

- academic culture is assumed (from new entrants), not managed

- professional logos and ethos prevail (no pathos, except for thruths)

Professional academic community & its culture

university

more professional autonomy less professional autonomy

free collegial conversation PR speech

less managerial control more managerial control

PROFESSIONAL INCORPORATION (K Domains) BUSINESS INCORPORATION (Outputs)

By Bologna, academic communities definitely shrinked with regard to traditional university - due to an increased central control of resources, by an emphasis on teaching, ... and are subject to ever-growing resource-based management by central university. Local corporate identity replaces areas of universal professional coherence. Nobody really cares of academic (universal) symbolic values and to that devoted daily life (perhaps only normatively).

Signs: - individualisation of academic careers (double careers)

- lack of professional belonging, what is replaced by corporate PR etc.

- academic culture not assumed (for new entrants), just managed

- lack of professional ethos, replaced by business logos, even pathos

Bologna captures academic community & its culture into an ill-defined short-term productive horizon (of fund raising)

university

B

university

New HE management

Goals Meanwhile, what happened with market corporations?

Only 5-6 nations export 90% of all knowledge, others adopt it

Market corporations prefer to follow financial-bubble economy

Profit & GDP seems to be most important (see Beyond GDP)

In Kondratieff terms, it is not quite clear whether current crises is

a temporary depression between two small peaks of the further upswing,

or

a beginning of the downswing phase of the 5th Kondratieff wave

For details, see: Korotayev & Tsirel (2010)

However, sociologocal inquiries clearly show that while efficiency

of global market corporations improved during liberalisations

since 1980, ethical concerns of the front-line organisations, by

their employees and managers significantly stagnated.

Q: Are Bologna academic corporations going the same way?

Basically, by Bologna a variety of traditional academic cultures & autonomy along with their symbolic life disappear:

An empowerment of academic (mis)management

Emerging of fragmented, segmented academic markets

Commodification of too specialised tracks of knowledge weak knowledge integrity (facts and values)

private knowledge circulation (transfer, creation)

none academic community & culture & autonomy (goals, critique)

Dualisation of academic labour markets

No room for urgent, practical interdisciplinarity

Hidden privatisation of academic resources

... and many other (bad) implications

Good implications ??

Methods implications (as thought experiments)

National reports, 29 countries (sept. 2011) with similar difficulties

All governments are passing Univ. reform bills with further cuts

More authoritarian HE managerial models are introduced

By Bologna, universities are turned into teaching colleges

Academic programs are loosely linked directly to markets (??)

Skills forecasts anticipate only more unskilled & high specialists

Increasing problems with employment for graduates

No interdisciplinarity, no human goals, no critique, no integral knowl.

Humanities & social sciences are under a direct attack

Problematic academic ranking systems flourish

Media studies rules, with hidden (MNC) advertisement agenda

On periphary, media representations are replacing R&R efforts

Collegial autonomy across HE rapidly vanishes (strong professions)

New strategic rent-seeking coalition (weak professions with HE mgt)

Main excuse is pervert: students (taste/choice of masess) in centre

Bologna also means a definite farewell to national research ...

More work overload in HE, especially for the waged youngsters

etc.

Evidence From ISA blogs: Universities in Crises

Strong historic messages types of polity formation

academic

Elite-1

Academic

Elite - n

Consolidated (professional) elites tend to form a limited democratic coalition, known as traditional academic, collegial autonomy (with regard to public authority)

Corporate

elites

Fragmented (corporated) elites tend to impose an autocratic coalition with masses,

known as competence-based Bologna allies weak professions & low-class students

Individualised students (mass) and displaced

professors, adapt to new programmes,

limited funds and rarer HE resources

Weak

professions

Organisational management of university (MNC behind)

Decay of state professions & community knowledge fragmentation

Academic community fragmentation (into rent-seeking coalitions)

Global power restructuring (MNC have a control over states aims)

Hard dualisation (segmentation) of national labour markets

Human communities under threat -> xenophobia (to others)

Employment: Few specialists & Plenty of all kinds of (poor-paid) services

???

Implications (scenarios) for academic community

Findings of Bologna effects from evidence (SWOT) Good things

Bureaucratic ivory towers of strong professions a bit restructured

Better acces to HE for more students, easier transitivity, exchange

Bad things

Knowledge & academic collegial culture dis-integration

Authoritarian HE mgt, increase in administrative auditing

Destruction of public university (traditional teaching & RD model)

Opportunities

Interdisciplinarity (consolidation of too fragmented Knowledge)

Smoother cross-border transmission of recent technologies

Threats

Weaker professions build new ivory towers (false self-advancement)

Irrelevant specialisations in academic tracks (for communities)

(Quasi) Privatisation of corporate resources within universities

Casualized labour force of mass graduates on short-term horizon

But, Bologna universities just try to adjust to global demand:

i.e.,

Information society -> Knowledge society -> Innovation systems ->