Universities and Regions: The Impact of Locality and Region on University Governance and Strategies

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This book explores the impact of localities and regions on universities and shows how the diversity of the higher education landscape is critically affected by the geophysical character of regions and their differentiated economies and cultures; regional inequalities bear heavily on universities' strategy-making. A study of the interrelationship between higher and further education argues that from a regional perspective a change to a tertiary education system in England (following Wales) would create the conditions for better local and regional coordination. Universities make a significant contribution to 'levelling up' through technology transfer and the creation of innovation hubs but the contribution of locally or regionally based students who on graduation return to disadvantaged communities rather than seek employment elsewhere should be recognised also as a longer term step to redressing regional inequality. The book argues strongly that the time has come to decentralise the governance of a re-aligned tertiary system to regions and identifies the move to create metro mayors and combined authorities as providing the appropriate vehicle to release new initiative from regional sources. It cites the success of decentralisation to Scotland and Wales as offering relevant models for scrutiny. The authors draw on 12 UK widely differentiated university case studies, a survey of further education and a study of three continental European comparators (Germany, Ireland and Norway) to develop the argument.

Reviews

This highly relevant volume asserts the importance associated with contextual dimensions - history, geography, disciplinary profiles, etc. - in both the governance of higher education and the various missions of higher education providers. Considering the complex interplay between regional and institutional dimensions, the authors make a compelling argument for the need for greater decentralization as a policy mechanism for fostering system diversity and in aiding regional differentiation. * Rmulo Pinheiro, Professor of Public Policy & Administration, University of Adger, Norway *
This is a must read book for anybody interested in the development of higher education systems and policy. It asks big, serious questions about the future of tertiary education, and how it might be organized to play a key role in economic, social and cultural regeneration at the regional level. * Geoff Hayward, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK *
Shattock and Horvath expertly point to an important political opportunity for England: the devolution of its universities and further education institutions into multi-campus regional systems, united by governance, accountability, and their important regional roles. The result is a radical yet learned proposal that should generate considered debate and possibly consequential reforms. * John Aubrey Douglass, Research Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, USA, and author of The New Flagship University *

Author Bio

Michael Shattock is Visiting Professor at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK and Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education the University of Oxford, UK. He leads the research programme on the governance of higher education in the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) at the University of Oxford, UK. Aniko Horvath is Assistant Professor in the Department of Organization Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and is Researcher at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) at the University of Oxford, UK.