Reframing conversations on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and accountability in the context of emerging managerialism and corporatism in South African higher education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20853/39-4-7507Keywords:
Institutional autonomy, academic freedom, accountability, managerialsim, performativityAbstract
Institutional autonomy and academic freedom have for centuries been the bedrock of a typical university. Universities have always prided themselves as being accountable to their convocations on curriculum, who teaches it, who is taught, how it is taught, and the priorities of a research agenda. However, there have always been challenges to this autonomy and freedom, from states and estates, religious powers, and ideological factions throughout university history. The challenges have recently come from rising new managerialism, corporatism, and performativity in university activities, making institutional accountability increasingly answerable to external interests. This article examines changing discourses in higher education in the contexts of transformational imperatives and emerging managerialism, corporatism, and performativity. This intersection of transformational imperatives and market incursions dictates reinterpretation of institutional autonomy, academic freedom and new approaches to accountability in higher education globally and in South Africa. Neither academic freedom nor institutional autonomy can flourish without responsiveness to notions of accountability
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References
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Harman, Kay. and Elaine. Tredgold. 2007. “Changing Patterns of Governance for Australian Universities.” Higher Education Research & Development 26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360601166786
Henkel, Mary. 1997. “Academic values and the university as corporate enterprise.” Higher Education Quarterly 51 (2): 134– 143.
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Lyotard, Jean-François, 1987. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lyer, Kirsten Roberts, Saliba, Ilyas & Spannagel, Janika. 2023. University Autonomy Decline: Causes, Responses, and Implications for Academic Freedom. Routledge, Abingdon and New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003306481.
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Maassen, Peter, Gornitzka, Åse, & Fumasoli, Tatiana. 2017. University reform and institutional autonomy: A framework for analysing the living autonomy. Higher Education Quarterly 71 (3).
Magna Charta Universitatum 1988. Bologna.
Maringe, Felix. 2010. “The Meanings of Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: Findings from a World Survey.” In Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: Theoretical, Strategic and Management Perspectives, edited by F. Maringe, and N. Foskett, 17–34. London: Continuum.
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Muller, Johan. Maassen, Peter. and Cloete Nico. 2006 “Modes of governance and the limits of policy.” In Transformation in higher education, edited by N. Cloete, R. Fehnel, P. Maasen, T. Moja, H. Perold and T. Gibbon, 289-310. 2nd edn. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4006-7.
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Slaughter, Sheila. and Rhoades, Gary. 2004. “Academic capitalism and the new economy: markets, state, and higher education”, The Journal of Biblical Integration in Business A Publication of the Christian Business Faculty Association. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Slaughter, Sheila and Leslie, Larry L. . 1997. Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow. 1911. Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper and Brothers.
Van Vaught, Frans. 2007. Diversity and differentiation in higher education systems. Centre for on higher education transformation anniversary conference. 16 November 2007. Cape Town.
Ball, Stephean. J. 2003. “The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity,” Journal of Education Policy, No. 18(2):215-228.
Behn, Robert. 2001. Rethinking Democratic Accountability. Washington, D.C, Brookings Inst. Press.
Bennington, Geoffrey and Massumi, Brian. 1984. The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Theory and history of literature, Volume 10. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bergan, Sjur, Gallagher, Tony and Harkavy, Ira. 2020 (eds) Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the future of democracy. Paris: UNESCO
Bergan, S., Egron-Polak, Eva., Noorda, Sijbolt. 2016.Academic freedom and institutional autonomy – what role in and for the EHEA? Background document for the thematic session at the meeting of the Bologna Follow-Up Group, Bratislava, December 8 – 9, 2016. Ministry of Education, Science Research and SRort. The Slovak Republic.
Bleiklie, Ivar and Kogan Maurice. 2007. “Organization and Governance of Universities. December 2007”. Higher Education Policy 20:477–493.
DOI:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300167
Canaan, Joyce. E. 2008. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the (European Social) Forum: Or How New Forms of Accountability Are Transforming Academics’ Identities and Possible Responses. In Reimers, A 2014. Humboldt versus Neoliberalism University Academics’ Perception of Higher Education Changes in Germany and England. Stockholm: University of Stockholm, 22.
Canaan, Joyce E and Shumar Westly. 2008. (eds.). Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University. New York, London: Routledge
Chirikov, Igor. 2023. Weaponisation of universities: a ‘back-to-the-future’ story. University World News, Global edition, 2023, 12 Nov 2023, issue no. 762.
Clark, Burton R. 1998. Creating Entrepreneurial Universities: Organizational Pathways of Transformation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Council on Higher Education 2000. Towards a new higher education landscape. Meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of South Africa in the 21st century. Pretoria: CHE.
Council on Higher Education. 2003. Good governance in Higher Education. Reflections on co-operative governance in South African Higher Education. Pretoria: CHE.
Council on Higher Education. 2004. South African Higher Education in the First Decade of Democracy. Pretoria: Council on Higher Education.
Council on Higher Education. 2008. Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and Public Accountability in South African Higher Education Report of the independent task team on Higher Education, Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom (HEIAAF). Pretoria: Council on Higher Education.
Council on Higher Education. 2016. South African Higher Education reviewed. Two decades of democracy. Pretoria: Council on Higher Education.
Davie, Thomas Benjamin 1990. Memorial Lecture in 1990, his title, The Road to Liberation, reflected a legacy of that awakening. Cape Town: University of Cape Town.
Deem, Rosemary. 1998. “New managerialism and higher education. The management of performances and cultures in universities in the United Kingdom.” International Studies in Sociology of Education, 8(1): 47–70.
Deem, Rosemary. 2001. "Globalisation, New Managerialism, Academic Capitalism and Entrepreneurialism in Universities: Is the Local Dimension Still Important?" Comparative Education 37 (1) 2001: 7-20.
Department of Education. 1997. Education White Paper 3: a programme for higher education transformation. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Department of Education. 2007. Higher education Act, No 101 of 1997. Pretoria: Government Printer.
Department of Education. 2001. National Plan on Higher Education (NPHE). Pretoria: Department of Education.
Department of Education.2002. Transformation and restructuring: A new institutional landscape for higher education. Pretoria: Department of Education.
Department of Higher Education and Training. 2002. A New Academic Policy for Policy for Programmes And Qualifications in Higher Education January 2002. Pretoria: Department of Higher Education and Training.
Edgell, M. 2004. Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Reviewed by Margaret Edgell, Calvin College. JBIB VOL. 15, NO, 1, SPRING 2012 ISSN# 1527-602
Gokulsing, Monti K. 1997. “University education in England and the principle of performativity”. In Usable knowledge as the goal of university education, edited by K. Moti., K.Gokulsing and C. Da Costa, 93–117. London: Edwin Mellen Press.
Goldstein, Stephen R. 1976. “The assessed Constitutional Right of Public School Teachers to determine what they teach”. University of Pennsylvania. Law Review 124 (6):1293-1357.
Gordon, George and Whitchurch Celia. 2010. Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: The Challenges of a Diversifying Workforce. Abingdon: Routledge.
Gürüz, Kemal. 2011. “University Autonomy and Academic Freedom: A Historical Perspective.” International Higher Education, no. 63, Spring 2011, 13-14.
Habib, Adam, Morrow, Seán, & Bentley, Kristina. 2008. Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the corporatised university in contemporary South Africa. Social Dynamics, 4:2:140-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950802280022.
Hanberger, Anders 2006. Evaluation and democratic accountability. Paper presented at the UK Evaluation Society and the European Evaluation Society joint conference in London 4-6 October 2006. Umeå Centre for Evaluation Research, Umeå University, Sweden, 2 & $)
Harman, Kay. and Elaine. Tredgold. 2007. “Changing Patterns of Governance for Australian Universities.” Higher Education Research & Development 26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360601166786
Henkel, Mary. 1997. “Academic values and the university as corporate enterprise.” Higher Education Quarterly 51 (2): 134– 143.
Huisman, Jeroen. 2018. “Accountability in Higher Education.” In Encyclopaedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, edited by J. Shin and J. Teixeira. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_156-1.
Human Sciences Research Council. 1996. National Commission on Higher Education Report. A framework for transformation. Pretoria: Government Printer.
International IDEA. 2016. Democratic accountability in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: lessons from Africa. Policy Brief.
Kogan , Maurice. 2004. “Frame-work paper: The Issues. In Managerialism and Evaluation in Higher Education”. Paris: UNESCO Forum Occasional Paper Series Paper no. 7.
Kohtamäki, Vuokko, Balbachevsky, Elizabeth. 2018. “University autonomy: From past to present”. In Pekkola, E., Kivistö, J., Kohtamäki, V., Cai, Y., Lyytinen, A. Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives on Higher Education Management and Transformation. Tampere University Press, 179-194.
Laurillard, Diana. 2000. New technologies, students and curriculum. The impact of communications and information technology in higher education. In Higher education re-formed, edited by P. Scott, 133–153. London: Falmer Press.
Lyotard, Jean-François 1984. The postmodernist condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Lyotard, Jean-François, 1987. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lyer, Kirsten Roberts, Saliba, Ilyas & Spannagel, Janika. 2023. University Autonomy Decline: Causes, Responses, and Implications for Academic Freedom. Routledge, Abingdon and New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003306481.
Lynch, Kathleen Grummell, Bernie and Devine Dympna 2012. New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness and Gender. Basingstoke: Macmillan: Palgrave.
Maassen, Peter, Gornitzka, Åse, & Fumasoli, Tatiana. 2017. University reform and institutional autonomy: A framework for analysing the living autonomy. Higher Education Quarterly 71 (3).
Magna Charta Universitatum 1988. Bologna.
Maringe, Felix. 2010. “The Meanings of Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: Findings from a World Survey.” In Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education: Theoretical, Strategic and Management Perspectives, edited by F. Maringe, and N. Foskett, 17–34. London: Continuum.
Marginson, Simon. 2009. Hayekian Neo-liberalism and Academic Freedom, Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, Volume: 1 (1): 86-114.
Marginson, Simon and van der Wende, M Marijk .C. 2007 “To rank or to be ranked: The impact of global rankings in higher education,” Journal of Studies in International Education 11(3-4).
Muller, Johan. Maassen, Peter. and Cloete Nico. 2006 “Modes of governance and the limits of policy.” In Transformation in higher education, edited by N. Cloete, R. Fehnel, P. Maasen, T. Moja, H. Perold and T. Gibbon, 289-310. 2nd edn. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4006-7.
Narayan, Anil K., Northcott, Deryl, & Parker, Lee D. 2017. Managing the accountability-autonomy tensions in university research commercialisation. Financial Accountability and Management, 33(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12127.
Nokkala, Terhi, & Bladh, Agneta. 2014. Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in the Nordic Context – Similarities and Differences. Higher Education Policy, 2014, 27, (1-21).
Ntshoe, Isaac M 2010. “The nature of knowledge and organisation: the case of four institutional types in South Africa.” Journal of Education, No. 48, 2010.
Ntshoe, Isaac and Selesho, Jacob 2014. “Institutional ranking in a differentiated higher education in South Africa.” South African Journal of Higher Education, 28 (4) 2014:1554–157.
Reilly, John, Turcan, Romeo N., & Bugaian, Larisa. 2016. “The Challenge of University Autonomy”. In Turcan, R., Reilly, J., Bugaian, L. (eds), (Re)Discovering University Autonomy: The Global Market Paradox of Stakeholder and Educational Values in Higher Education, (pp. 3-24). Macmillan: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388728-1.
Reiners, Anna 2014. Humboldt versus Neoliberalism University Academics’ Perception of Higher Education Changes in Germany and England. Stockholm: University of Stockholm.
Republic of South Africa. 1996. South Africa Constitution. Pretoria: Government Printers.
Republic of South Africa. 1997. The Higher Education Act (Act No. 101 as amended). Pretoria: Government Printers.
Republic of South Africa 2012. Higher Education and Training Laws Amendment Act, 23, 2012. Pretoria: Government Printers.
Shepherd, Sue. 2017. “Managerialism: an ideal type” Studies in Higher Education. 43:9:1668-1678, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2017.1281239.
Slaughter, Sheila. and Rhoades, Gary. 2004. “Academic capitalism and the new economy: markets, state, and higher education”, The Journal of Biblical Integration in Business A Publication of the Christian Business Faculty Association. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Slaughter, Sheila and Leslie, Larry L. . 1997. Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow. 1911. Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper and Brothers.
Van Vaught, Frans. 2007. Diversity and differentiation in higher education systems. Centre for on higher education transformation anniversary conference. 16 November 2007. Cape Town.
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Published
2025-08-23
How to Cite
Ntshoe, I., and F. Faller. 2025. “Reframing Conversations on Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Accountability in the Context of Emerging Managerialism and Corporatism in South African Higher Education”. South African Journal of Higher Education 39 (4):217-35. https://doi.org/10.20853/39-4-7507.
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