Rules and rationalities are the bases of analysis in rules determined governance model. Power as the ability to influence decision-making and the influence of power centres are not sufficiently examined in the literature on the governance of higher education. The article locates various centres of power in the functioning of universities and how…

This project aimed to understand the relationship between theoretical interpretations of multiple values and ideas of the universities from within and across different disciplines and their influence on higher education and its internationalisation within the real international organisation (IO) policy context. With this foundation, I derived a…

The neo-institutional theory indicates the impact of the institutional environment on organizations. This leads to the creation of homogeneous institutional structures, due to the existence of dominant institutional logic. University reforms, embedded in ideas of New Public Management, mean that evolution of the institutional logic associated with…

Students who serve on the governing body of UK and Irish higher education institutions often report challenges due to a perceived power dynamic. This study explored the perspectives of power among current and former student governors (n = 14). This research highlighted the importance of power and its role in determining the influence (or lack of)…

This article relies on two international projects to argue for the existence of a 'centrarchy' in the fields of education and technology (and beyond). Centrarchy denotes a power structure in which power rests with 'the Centre'. The Centre signifies well-respected departments, top-tiered journals, the best editors, critical reviewers and leading…

This article offers a current perspective on George Orwell's 1984 (1949) utopian society in the context of 2022 and implications for higher education and society in the United States. Societies have experienced numerous issues portrayed in 1984 including power struggles and censorship, and identity politics and cancel culture are impeding an open…

This paper proposes a governance model framework for online learning marketplaces in Indonesia. This research uses a case study approach to explore a model that is adequate and suitable to be applied in the context of the Indonesia Cyber Education Institute, which was initiated by Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. The proposed model was prepared…

This paper explores how a novel university governance model at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), largely learned from the West, has been implemented in the highly institutionalised and centralised Chinese higher education system. For this purpose, we first constructed an analytical framework, integrating the…

Higher Education (HE) constitutes a space that calls urgently for new understandings in the contemporary political moment. One way of establishing such an understanding of HE is to consider more fully the work of political theorists in relation to questions of power in the modern nation-state, particularly as these impinge upon the key problem of…

Foucauldian critical studies are cornucopian in illustrating how policy as discourse normalizes and yields human beings into made subjects in modern societies. However, Foucault's own slide from the 'terminal stage of discourse' pays little attention to the linguistic elements, and thus weakens the theory's potency in explaining the reality.…

The state-university's interaction and relationship has long been a key focus of scholarly discussion. A distinct strategy in China's higher education is policy experimentation (PE), which allows indigenous policy innovations to be generated at local institutions and incorporated into national policymaking. The PE approach allows power negotiation…

The bulk of research on academic rankings is policy-oriented, preoccupied with 'best practices', and seems incapable of transcending the normative discourse of 'governance'. To understand, engage, and properly critique the operation of power in academic rankings, the rankings discourse needs to escape the gravity of 'police science' and embrace a…

This article is a case study describing the University College of the North's (UCN) response to the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining pandemic planning and management processes at UCN from March 11, 2020, to September 30, 2021. UCN's planning processes evolved from a top-down approach led by administration to an approach that saw greater shared…

This study considers academic identity and the performance of identity work in the context of the design and delivery of new degree apprenticeships. Recent UK Policies have driven many changes in UK higher education, including the rapid development of new awards combining an apprenticeship with a full bachelor's or master's degree. Delivery…

Power is an essential component of leadership and has many complex forms. The article explores how a sample of higher education leaders in the United Kingdom engages with and uses power. It examines how we might understand leaders' orientation to power in an environment where many disapprove of its use. The analysis suggests leaders habitually use…