Author:

Keywords:

university administration, iniversity management, deliberation, higher education policy, faculty, conflict

Abstract:

The reform of the Flemish higher education in 1994 university colleges were assigned new tasks and they had to create new representative bodies. The question arises to what extent the new structures and the new policy processes function as they were originally intended. The researchers examine to what extent the staff, five years after the acceptance of the university college decree, is actually involved in the management of the university colleges. The involvement of staff in decision includes several dimensions. Taking into account these various dimensions of decision-making in our study we distinguish between the formal decision which happens under the authority of specific bodies and the informal decision, which rather refers to the openness of the university college management for participatory decision-making. This dichotomy has been translated into the following questions: How do managers and staff perceive the operation of the legally obligatory participation councils? - Who sets the agenda for meetings? - Do preparatory documents arrive on time to the members? – Do the documents contain sufficient information? - Can the members influence the opinions and decisions made in the councils? – Do managers take into account the opinions or decisions of the council? -Is the council useful? –Are council members generally satisfied with the functioning of the body? - How do general managers and staff evaluate the leadership style of the general managers?