Please come along to our next Departmental Seminar, to be given by Professor Rob Cuthbert, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Management, University of the West of England.  This seminar will take place on Wednesday 1st May 2013, 12.30 – 2.00 p.m., B.89 County South.  Everyone welcome.

 

Failing the Challenge of Institutional Evaluation: How and Why Managerialism Flourishes

 

‘Governments spending billions and individuals spending thousands of pounds on higher education (HE) rightly expect accountability for how the money is used. But pressure for accountability has accelerated the spread of managerialism, jeopardising rather than improving quality and posing dilemmas for managers trying to reconcile internal and external pressures. In the managerialist dialectic, unthinking resistance meets unthinking control, an unwinnable battle between the stereotypes of ‘academic populism’ and ‘new managerialism’. Managers and staff could respond more effectively to the challenge of evaluation by thinking differently about managing, to find social practices embodying the values needed to transcend managerialist pressures. I will use the case of league tables and draw on theory and practice (including my own experience as Pro and Deputy Vice-Chancellor in a large ‘mid-table’ university) to sketch an alternative approach.

  

Rob Cuthbert is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Management at the University of the West of England with 20 years’ senior management experience as Dean, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Acting Vice-Chancellor. He has worked in universities, further education colleges and government agencies worldwide as a manager, academic and consultant; his publications include six books and many reports, articles and papers on HE policy, management, teaching and learning. Rob was Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) in 2002-2003.  An SRHE Fellow, he edits Higher Education Review (www.highereducationreview.com) and SRHE News (www.srhe.ac.uk), is co-director of the consultancy partnership Practical Academics, and chairs the independent not-for-profit ‘Improving Dispute Resolution Advisory Service’ for higher education (www.idras.ac.uk).’

 

For further information please contact Dee Daglish 01524 592679 [log in to unmask], or look on the forthcoming events section of the Department of Educational Research website http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/edres/event/

 

This year we are once again filming most of the seminar series, so if for any reason you can’t attend – or can and want to watch it all again – most seminars should be available to watch on our website a week or so after the event - http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/edres/seminars/index.htm

 

This year we are also continuing our doctoral student participation option via on-line video conferencing.

 

Best wishes

Dee Daglish

 

 

Dee Daglish

Secretary & MA ALNE Co-ordinator

Department of Educational Research

D.53 County South

Lancaster University

LANCASTER

LA1 4YD

 

Telephone (01524) 592679

email [log in to unmask]