ABSTRACT

Over the last 20 years, the UK Higher Education sector has experienced a significant change to its funding base with a shift away from government funding, to operating within a highly competitive marketised environment. This shift has impacted the governance and management structures within the sector, with universities encouraged to adopt a more corporate and managerial style. Moreover, over this period, universities have evolved and adapted to social, economic, environmental and technological changes, necessitating a change in dialogue with the large number of internal and external stakeholders who influence Higher Education policy as well as university practices and operations. Adopting a Stakeholder and Resource Dependency Theory perspective, this paper seeks to calibrate the changing influence and importance of these stakeholders. The paper analyses a survey of 22 university secretaries (In the UK Higher Education setting, the university secretary is responsible for the effective governance of the university and for its professional services. In recent years, several UK universities have changed the title of this role from university secretary to Chief Operating Officer (COO), or to University Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, which is more common internationally.) conducted in mid-2020, and the results show that academic staff and students are seen as the most influential internal stakeholders as the quality of teaching and research is vital to the reputation and attractiveness of the university in a global market. Undergraduate home students are seen as the most influential student group due largely to the numbers enrolled, followed by international postgraduate taught students, an outcome consistent with resource dependency theory. UK and devolved governments (Devolution occurs when a central government delegates power to a region, providing it with autonomy to make legislation relevant to the area, whilst keeping it under national control. In the UK, devolved powers were granted to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the UK Westminster Government following referenda in each region in the late 1990s. The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have control over a wide range of policy areas and have the authority to pass their own legislation in relation to them. One such devolved policy area is education. Other devolved policy areas include health services, law, and the environment.) are seen as the most influential external stakeholder reflecting their role in university funding and in setting Higher Education policy and regulation, an influence that has increased over the past two decades. The influence of financial stakeholders has also grown over the past two decades.

摘要

在过去的 20 年中，英国高等教育部门的资金基础发生了重大变化，从政府资金转向在竞争激烈的市场化环境中运营。这种转变影响了该行业的治理和管理结构，鼓励大学采用更多的企业和管理风格。此外，在此期间，大学已经发展并适应了社会、经济、环境和技术的变化，因此需要改变与影响高等教育政策以及大学实践和运营的大量内部和外部利益相关者的对话。本文采用利益相关者和资源依赖理论的视角，试图校准这些利益相关者不断变化的影响力和重要性。本文分析了对 22 位大学秘书的调查（在英国高等教育环境中，大学秘书负责大学的有效治理和专业服务。近年来，一些英国大学已将这一角色的名称从2020 年年中进行的大学秘书兼首席运营官（COO），或大学秘书兼首席运营官，这在国际上更为常见。结果表明，学术人员和学生被视为最有影响力的内部利益相关者教学和研究的质量对于大学在全球市场的声誉和吸引力至关重要。本科家庭学生被视为最具影响力的学生群体，主要是因为入学人数，其次是国际研究生授课，结果与资源依赖理论一致。英国和下放政府（当中央政府将权力下放给一个地区时，就会发生下放，使其拥有制定与该地区相关的立法的自主权，同时将其置于国家控制之下。在英国，下放权力被授予苏格兰、威尔士和北部地区爱尔兰在 1990 年代后期在每个地区举行全民公决后脱离英国威斯敏斯特政府。苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰的权力下放政府控制着广泛的政策领域，并有权通过自己的立法。这种下放的政策领域是教育。其他下放的政策领域包括卫生服务、法律和环境。) 被视为最具影响力的外部利益相关者，反映了他们在大学资助和制定高等教育政策和法规方面的作用，这种影响在过去二十年中有所增加。在过去的二十年里，金融利益相关者的影响力也越来越大。