University governance: effects on campus strategies and university performance

Universities, like other public sector institutions, face the need to operate in an increasingly competitive environment. The decrease of public funding, and additionally the demographic trends and other global challenges, increase the competitiveness among higher education institutions.For several years in many European countries traditional government public funding for universities has stagnated and it is assumed that it will not increase sufficiently enough to cover the full costs of universities. Therefore, universities are forced to implement strategies that will enable them to make more effective and efficient use of all their resources (including real estate, which is the one of the key strategic resources). On the other hand, the ability to implement different strategies and consequently achieve the university’s goals are affected by the university governance model. Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present and compare the university governance model(s) and campus strategies implemented by public universities in the Netherlands and Poland.Design/methodology/approach – Literature overview discusses the relationship between university governance, campus strategies and university outcomes. In this paper, a broad perspective to define campus governance has been adopted, which enables a comparison of campus legal frameworks, management structure, degree of university autonomy, accountability and transparency as well as participation of different stakeholders in campus decision making in the two European contexts.Findings - The paper demonstrates two contrasting campus governance models. In the Netherlands, there is limited regulatory intervention of the state in campus decision making. Since 1995 Dutch universities have far-reaching autonomy and need to be transparent and accountable for their campus decisions. In their campus strategies, universities are mainly guided by changing needs of students and (academic) staff, ultimately to achieve or maintain a competitive advantage in the global higher education market. By comparison, universities in Poland operate on the basis of a significant number of regulations. They, nevertheless, have a relatively high level of autonomy in campus decision making, which is not counterbalanced by accountability and transparency to the government and other stakeholders. Their campus strategies are often isolated from socio-economic needs.