UCU Scotland President Dave Anderson writes on democratic governance in universities in a post-referendum Scotland…
Democracy has never been more in vogue in Scotland. An incredible 97% of Scotland’s adults registered to vote in last month’s independence referendum, with actual turnout passing 90% in a number of areas. The level of engagement and debate has been impressive to say the least. Yet Scotland’s university sector continues to shy away from any notion of democracy, however limited.
It wasn’t too long ago that academic leaders in several Universities were elected by their peers rather than appointed by their managers. The move to managerial appointments has inevitably hastened the adoption of other managerial practices, for example “performance management”, which undermine collegiality and threaten the very academic freedom our institutions should be seeking to protect.
The recommendations of the von Prondzynski review into Higher Education in Scotland did not go so far as suggesting that universities should roll back to a time when Deans or even Principals were elected and hence answerable to the academic community. The review panel’s report highlights the importance of collegiality and democracy in decision making, and recommends that this can be best addresses by the election of a Rector to chair university governing bodies. An elected chair, with an electorate drawn from the most obvious university community, i.e. students and staff, may seem like a small concession compared to the democratic influence enjoyed previously but even this has been avoided in the new “Scottish Code of Good HE Governance” prepared by the Committee of Scottish Chairs (CSC).
Perhaps this reluctance to embrace democracy shouldn’t be surprising. The CSC submission to von Prondzynski review stated “Universities are complex, multi-million pound businesses and it is essential that the chairs of the governing bodies have the requisite skills and are fully committed to the strategic interests of the institutions…. it is not clear that the role of rector is still required” http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/361039/0122077.pdf
Quite who determines the “strategic interests of the institutions” I shall leave for moment – but the CSC’s distrust of student and staff involvement in any significant democratic decision making is clear and has been reflected in the governance code they have prepared.
Clearly there is much to be done for those who believe that student and staff involvement and engagement in the running of our universities is essential to defend academic freedom and the distinctive nature of our institutions. While the adoption of the CSC code is disappointing there is still plenty to suggest that democracy will return to our institutions. The most recent letter of guidance from the Cabinet Secretary to the Scottish Funding Council stated that “Refinement of governance arrangements in our Higher Education Institutions will help embed a modern, democratic and accountable higher education sector” http://www.sfc.ac.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.aspx?lID=13433&sID=5637
The joint campus unions conference “Re-imagining the University” will provide an opportunity for the sector as a whole to consider what Universities are for, who do they belong to and how should they be governed. The question of how a “modern, democratic and accountable” university will be achieved remains to be answered. What is clear is that those who see universities as places of useful learning, cultural development and economic improvement rather than simply “multi-million pound businesses” will have to work hard to achieve democratic accountability.
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