Management and governance of the modern university: variations in the United States

Following the Second World War, American research universities developed the most powerful system for advancing knowledge in the world. Because of its distinctive evolution as a federalist government, the US never developed a national ministry of education, nor has it directly regulated university organization, management, or student admissions. As a consequence, US university management and governance has been more institutionally focused, especially when compared to other countries. Given these unique framework conditions American academic research became a self-organizing system and America’s leading research universities developed distinctive mechanisms of collegial governance and management. These mechanisms include the structure of academic departments and research units, the organization of graduate schools, the authority granted to executive leadership, and the collegial processes of self-government and management characteristic of the public and private research universities which compose the Association of American Universities.