2004-04-15
Governance - on the role and appointment of vice-chancellors
1. The role of vice-chancellors and the procedures for appointing them
The points of view submitted by the higher education institutions show clearly that their vice-chancellors have not just one role to play but many. The last decade has witnessed major changes in the higher education sector and these new circumstances have radically changed the conditions that apply to academic governance.
There is also a great deal to suggest that these roles will continue to change in view of the challenges facing higher education, both nationally and internationally. Academic governance is, both from a national and international perspective, one of a vice-chancellor’s most important duties. This is also related to academic autonomy. For this reason, vice-chancellors are treated differently from all the other heads of public agencies, as reflected for instance in the totally different procedures that apply for the appointment of vice-chancellors as compared with other senior public administrators.
One of the premises held by the National Agency for Higher Education is that emphasis should be placed on the specific nature of the higher education institutions and the roles of their vice-chancellors by ensuring that these appointments are made by their governing bodies. This is the procedure that was previously proposed by the government inquiry RUT 93 in its final report (SOU 1996:21) after a penetrating discussion of the standing of the higher education institutions as public agencies and the division of responsibilities between their vice-chancellors and their governing bodies. This is also the normal procedure in many other countries, among them Denmark where it has recently become law in the University Act of 2003. In countries like the United Kingdom and the USA, the appointment of vice-chancellors is normally the concern of the governing bodies of the higher education institutions.
Today the appointment by the government of a vice-chancellor is, in practice, an official promulgation of a decision previously made by the institution’s governing body, so that amending the procedure would involve no major change in substance.
Nevertheless, the change proposed involves yet another responsibility for the governing bodies. In the opinion of the National Agency, their composition should in itself provide a guarantee that various aspects of the role of vice-chancellor will be taken into account in the appointment process. Even though these bodies already have this responsibility in practice, there may well be reason for ensuring that before recruitment begins their members are thoroughly informed of the regulations that apply and enabled at the same time to benefit from examples of good practice from other recruitment processes. The National Agency will revert below to the measures that may be taken in this context, for instance by the Agency itself as the central authority for the higher education sector.
In relation to the role of the vice-chancellors in more general terms, the National Agency intends to launch a project to undertake continued and continuous analysis of the conditions that apply to academic governance and the forms it takes. This analysis will be regularly discussed with the vice-chancellors and chairpersons of the governing bodies and should enable the proposed changes in the recruitment process to be monitored.
2. Remuneration and terms of employment
A number of higher education institutions have pointed out that at the moment there is little financial incentive to take on the demanding role of vice-chancellor. The salary differences between the institution’s chief representative and its other officials are often so small that they do not compensate for the added burden of work and the greater responsibilities entailed. In a number of cases, the vice-chancellor is not even receiving the highest salary paid at the institution.
In their responses, the higher education institutions testify to a systemic error in the way things are organised at the moment. Centralised determination of remuneration for the vice-chancellors cements salary differentials between the institutions and within the institutions themselves. In the long run this hampers the dynamism and scope for development in the higher education sector.
One important aspect of a normal recruitment process is that those who are in fact responsible and involved in ongoing discussion of employment conditions are also those that in the last resort decide on these conditions. The current system, in which the government determines vice-chancellors’ salaries, means that no genuine discussion is possible. This would change if the right to appoint was vested in the governing bodies.
With regard to the other terms of employment, the National Agency would like to emphasise the problems referred to by the higher education institutions, for instance the effects of current tax legislation for vice-chancellors who have to commute and pension entitlement. The Agency proposes a government review of these issues, with the aim, for instance, of placing the vice-chancellors on the same footing as the heads of other public agencies where pension entitlements are concerned.
3. The systematic development of governance
A large number of programmes in leadership development are under way at the higher education institutions. It is important for these programmes to continue and to be extended and also to ensure that they form part of the strategic planning of every institution. It is also important for these programmes to be regarded as a natural element in an academic career structure.
One general problem for the activities already being undertaken is the lack of links with theoretical reflections on the specific conditions that can be considered to characterise governance in higher education. Here there are good reasons to take advantage of the international research that is now being conducted in several countries about governance issues that are specific to the sector and to adapt it to Swedish circumstances.
In addition to this, more extensive Swedish research or more penetrating reflection on these issues is required. The National Agency proposes that the government should request the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and its committee on educational methodology to take this into account in the future.
4. Making the post of vice-chancellor more attractive
Remuneration and employment conditions are the most important factors that will make the post of vice-chancellor attractive. This applies not least if it is desired to recruit individuals with suitable academic backgrounds, but who have at the same time spent some part of their careers outside higher education, in industry, for instance, or senior posts in the civil service.
Even if the higher education sector will in the future offer the most important recruitment base, it should of course be possible to recruit vice-chancellors from other sectors of the community. In view of the basic assumptions presented above, however, academic leadership and professional legitimacy is an important factor. This means that the qualifications currently required should be retained.
For the institutions of higher education in the arts, the artistic background required of the vice-chancellors is indispensable and here too the current qualification requirements should of course continue to apply.
5. A national governance programme
Experiences of the National Agency’s activities in the field of governance are positive and the ALP programme should continue even if no direct impact on the recruitment of vice-chancellors can be indicated. One of the most important effects of the programme is, however, the establishment of networks that create contacts between higher education institutions all over Sweden and which in themselves provide a source of knowledge about individuals and potential administrators that is important for recruitment in the future.
Continual discussion about governance issues is taking place with the Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF) and the Agency will monitor and assist the work of the IDAS (Identification Development Advancement Support) project in providing support for leadership programmes for women. There are also good reasons for determining whether there is any scope for coordination and synergies in the various programmes on governance in the higher education sector that are now under way in Sweden.
6. International experiences
The discussion of the role of the vice-chancellors and academic governance takes more or less similar forms in a number of countries. The roles of academic managers are very largely dependent on the system of regulation in force and financial conditions. From this point of view, Sweden seems most likely to benefit from countries where vice-chancellors cooperate with governing bodies with a majority of external members, as is most often the case in the USA and some of the other English-speaking countries.
The internal market that characterises Sweden in terms of competition for students and research funding also displays some similarities to these countries.
Analysis also shows that the most frequent pattern in the countries studied is for vice-chancellors to be appointed by the governing bodies of the higher education institutions. Indeed, international comparison reveals that the appointment of vice-chancellors by governments is the exception.
From an international perspective, issues such as transparency and secrecy are central to any discussion of the process of recruiting vice-chancellors. Various tendencies can be discerned, from total secrecy to full transparency. The most frequent pattern would appear, however, to be secrecy to begin with, followed by transparency when a limited number of candidates have been singled out.
7. Recruiting women vice-chancellors
The National Agency proposes that each higher education institution be asked to submit to the government an account of its strategies and to describe how the proportion of women involved in its governance can be increased. Particular emphasis should be placed on governance roles that involve overall responsibility for research issues and operational responsibility.
The government should formulate a recruitment objective for each individual higher education institution, which should be accounted for in its annual report. The National Agency has interviewed a number of women who have reached the final phase of recruitment processes. These interviews demonstrate the importance of establishing formal, objective recruitment procedures. Procedures of this kind are characterised by their use of the official, written qualification profiles throughout and awareness in the board of the hidden agendas or implicit qualification requirements that some stakeholders may espouse.
The hearing procedure laid down in the Higher Education Ordinance should come late enough in the process for it to involve genuine decisions about a few candidates. The government should alter the stipulations in the Higher Education Ordinance relating to this hearing procedure to make it clear that candidates of both genders should be included.
In order to attain a wide selection of both male and female candidates, it is important for local recruitment panels to identify candidates in a number of different ways, both through advertisement and nomination procedures.
8. Women pro-vice-chancellors and deans etc.
The reports submitted by the higher education institutions indicate a great lack of gender equality at the dean and departmental chair level. For instance there are universities with comprehensive educational and research programmes that have no women deans. At other major universities the proportion of women varies between 10 and 25 per cent.
At departmental chair level as well, the situation is at times remarkable, not least at the major institutions. The proposal in section 7 about recruitment objectives and the subsequent account of recruitment to governance positions at various levels should, in the long term, lead to an increase in the proportion of women deans and departmental chairs.
Where pro-vice-chancellors are concerned, the study shows that women are often appointed as pro-vice-chancellor when the vice-chancellor is a man. However, this post does not seem to provide an important stepping-stone to the post of vice-chancellor, judging from the appointments made recently. There seems rather to be a risk that the way responsibilities are often divided between vice-chancellor and pro-vice-chancellor has the effect of perpetuating existing structures.
9. The recruitment process
There seems to be no general need to change the system of appointing vice-chancellors for an initial six-year period, apart from the proposal already made that the governing body should make this decision.
On the other hand, there are reasons for changing the general procedures that apply to the reappointment of a vice-chancellor at the end of the initial period. Section 8 of the Higher Education Act assumes that a hearing must take place even when a reappointment is concerned. In many cases this has led to less desirable outcomes, when vice-chancellors have, for instance, had to leave their posts because of decisions they had been required to make that ran counter to the interests of one or several groups in the institution. The current regulations can also result in less than desirable conditions for a vice-chancellor during the initial six-year period as well. The governing body should be empowered to determine the suitability of a reappointment.
In connection with the arguments presented here for amending the regulations that apply to reappointment, the National Agency further proposes limiting the possibility of reappointment to a maximum of three years.
It is necessary during every recruitment process to ensure that the timetable and the conditions that apply are clearly presented, so that there can be no ambiguity at any stage about which individuals and/or groups are to reach a decision about the candidates.
There is a general need to assure the quality of the appointment procedures. This is a task for the National Agency. It can be achieved by means of a number of complementary measures. One would be for the Agency to use the experience it has acquired in undertaking this survey for the government to produce a brochure on good practice in connection with the appointment of vice-chancellors. Another would be for the Agency to arrange an annual meeting of representatives of all the governing bodies that will soon be recruiting new vice-chancellors so that they, together with representatives of the institutions which have recently made an appointment, can discuss routines and problems.
With regard to the conflict between transparency and secrecy in the recruitment process, experiences from recruitment during the last few years show that up until a certain stage it may be necessary to make confidential contacts. However, this confidentiality may go no further than the law permits. In conformity with the practices that apply in countries that are not subject to Swedish legislation on public access to official documents, the names of the candidates on the final short-list should be made public in the higher education institution itself.
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