Shared Governance in Education Essay (Critical Writing)

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Sharing governance is a term that can be observed in various spheres of life, but most often this phenomenon can be met in business. For instance, different people can own shares of one company, and derived from the value of every share, the power of every stakeholder – which is his ability to influence the company’s life and make decisions – is defined. The scheme is pretty simple and familiar to everyone.

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However, lately the tendency of sharing governance has been observed in such sphere as higher education. This means that a certain higher educational establishment, such as a college or a University, is governed not only by its provost and administration, but also by the board of trustees, defined by the government. Such scheme has its advantages and drawbacks, which are being discussed by many specialists nowadays. Marvin Lazerson in his article “Who Owns Higher Education” mentions the two contrasting points of view on the matter.

Some are completely against the intrusion of the board of trustees in the life of educational establishments. Such point of view can be explained by the abrupt and unexpected cut of financing, which always affects the quality of educational process. In addition, the critics of this scheme insist that the shared governance can never go along with the traditional values of educational establishments, which are not related anyhow to politics or economy (Lazerson, 1).

Another perception of shared governance is rather positive. The representatives of this position state that trustees can often be more effective than the higher education administrators, as far as the latter have little power in supporting a certain establishment financially, managing the educational process during economic crisis, or making the college or University politically correct (Lazerson, 1). What is more, when a power is given to a trustee, it can be rather beneficial for an establishment, as a person who works in government can attract more attention to the University, as it was pointed out by Christakis in the article “Gubernatorial Authority and Influence on Higher Education” (Christakis, 115).

After comparison of the two positions, a question arises: which of them is right? Marvin Lazerson, an author of the mentioned extensive and informative article, a man who has worked in one of the Universities for many years and therefore knows the system inside out, states that the both positions are right (Lazerson, 2). The higher education administrators indeed failed to cope with numerous financial aspects that occur constantly in any establishment. However, at the same time, Lazerson states that their position has become even worse with the pressure of trustees (Lazerson, 5).

For instance, the author names various forms of negative impact of the trustees’ activity on higher education. They include:

  • The increasing power of investors (Lazerson, 2);
  • Treating an educational establishment as a business, which can have its value increased or decreased (Lazerson, 2);
  • Loss of autonomy for higher education (Lazerson, 3);
  • Falsified admissions processes and faculty promotions (Lazerson, 3);
  • Competition for students, prestige, sponsors, etc. (contrasted to the traditional educational values, such as knowledge, research capabilities, resources availability, etc.) (Lazerson, 4);
  • Instability in education administration membership (Lazerson, 4);
  • The increasing authority of board trustees as the most important members of higher education’s hierarchy (Lazerson, 6).

Christakis in his study also names several drawbacks of shared governance. To be specific, he mentions concrete cases when governors who were stakeholders in some Universities used their power and authority for personal aims, such as budget controlling, assigning their people to the Board of Regence, and so on. The author is convinced that the government pays too little attention to the power and influence of a governor over the higher education (Christakis, 98).

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Brian Taylor in her article called “Exactly What’s Shared Governance?” also points that, if to look at shared governance at a certain angle, it may seem that the professors, who actually know better how to organize the educational process properly, have to give their powers and governance to administrators, which causes a lot of skeptical attitudes (Taylor, 1).

Taking into consideration all the mentioned facts, which are quite convincing, one can make a conclusion that the trustees’ intrusion in high education, as well as shared governance in general, is a scheme that is doomed to fail. However, that is only one point of view. Logically, there is also another set of facts that can prove that shared governance can be rather prolific and beneficial for all sides.

Indeed, in his study, Christakis also shows the other side of the medal of shared governance. The author highlights three spheres in which the governor influences the higher education:

  1. Budget
  2. Appointment
  3. Policy

Despite of the possible negative results of intrusion in these spheres, a governor can do much good for a higher education. To be concrete, in the sphere of budget, the governor can balance between all the institutions he owns, covering the costs for higher education, even when there is a cut by the government (Christakis, 115). As for appointments, the power of a government to change some members of education administration stimulate the latter to effective and dedicated work (Christakis, 105).

Changing the Universities’ policies can also be the governor’s responsibility, as far as the latter is always aware of the state policies and can maneuver where some flexible decisions are needed.

In fact, shared governance can turn into a very beneficial system, which can satisfy all its members. The authors of the mentioned studies all agree in one opinion: the main condition for the shared governance to become effective and harmful is a respective collaboration between the government board and high education administrators. To be specific, the authors suggest the following solutions:

  • Clear definition of set goals and mechanisms of their achieving both for state boards and administration (Lazerson, 7);
  • Definition of criteria for asserting the achievements (Lazerson, 7);
  • Work of faculty, state board, and administration as a team (Lazerson, 8);
  • Assignation of small impartial units for decision-making (Lazerson, 8);
  • Constant communication between the governing structures (Taylor, 4);
  • Assignation of certain tasks to specialists in that field, for example professors for discipline requirements setting (Lazerson, 4).

To conclude, it has to be said that shared governance implies sharing responsibilities and influences on various aspects of higher education among different institutions. Solving all the problems that occur, making flexible decision, supporting accountability, and, of course, taking into consideration the value of education itself, – these are the aims of shared governance of higher education. It is essential that being successful at this multilateral task is extremely hard. However, despite the spread criticism of the scheme, there are a lot of advantages of shared governance, which can bring benefit in case when the right approaches and methods are used.

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Works Cited

Christakis Nicholas. Gubernatorial authority and influence on public higher education. The Review of Higher Education, Vol. 33, No. 1., 2009.

Lazerson, Marvin. Who owns higher education: The changing face of governance. Change, 20. 2, 10-15., 1997.

Taylor, Brian. . Web.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Shared Governance in Education." February 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shared-governance-in-education/.

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