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CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference on
Changing Universities: Governance, Relevance, Performance
29 September – 2 October 2009
Istanbul, Turkey


Over the last couple of decades or so, higher education systems and, in 
particular, universities have become, notably in Europe as well as 
elsewhere, targets of attention and debate for change and reform. A 
host of external factors have been at play in shaping the discourses 
and actions with regard to changing universities. Within Europe, for 
example, policy statements such as the Bologna Accord, the Berlin 
Communiqué and the Lisbon Declaration have called for major reforms and 
re-orientations in higher education as a part of the broader vision of 
creating a European knowledge society. This has also been linked with 
expectations that universities should serve as engines of economic 
growth and national as well as regional competitiveness in the global 
marketplace. Concerns have therefore been expressed with regard to the 
relationships of universities with their external environments and the 
society at large. Business representatives have been demanding closer 
university-industry ties and research more relevant to their needs. 
Likewise, pressures have been mounting on providing education that is 
more responsive to the needs of the labour market. State authorities 
have joined in endorsing these demands. Moreover, these kinds of 
pressures have been coming at a time when public funding has been 
increasingly constrained and universities have been guided towards 
obtaining other sources of funds, leading, in some countries at least, 
to the encouragement of privately funded institutions. Concomitantly, 
there has been a greater concern with resource allocation to and within 
universities as well as their efficient use, resulting also in a 
broader discourse on and ensuing polices with respect to issues about 
accountability.

Altogether these kinds of pressures have resulted in the introduction 
of new policies and reform initiatives in the last two decades or so, 
though their timing, scale and pace has been variant across countries. 
National and organizational level governance systems have been altered, 
in some cases a number of times. New evaluation schemes have been 
introduced for assessing organizational, departmental and individual 
performance. Funding systems have been revisited, quite often in ways 
that not only attempt to make them performance-based but also to 
promote and encourage the acquisition of external funds. That these 
kinds of changes and the responses to them have and are being played 
out in institutionalized organizational fields has motivated not only 
practical but also academic interest in their implementation and 
outcomes. Likewise, that they have been internationally widespread, 
quite often with some reference to and justification based on North 
American models has generated debate around convergence as opposed to 
divergence sustained in many ways.

The above issues have been addressed for the last year or so within a 
project entitled MEHEM (Mapping European Higher Education Models), 
funded by the European Union and carried out by scholars from Sabanci 
University (Turkey), Oxford University (UK), University of Siena 
(Italy) and Uppsala University (Sweden) together with collaborators 
from Germany, France and Spain. The Istanbul Conference is organized as 
a part of this project and aims to bring together researchers from a 
broader range of institutions and countries with interests in the 
changes that have been taking place over the last couple of decades at 
universities, nationally, regionally and internationally. Papers are 
invited therefore on the following topics, though not exclusively 
limited to them, as submissions pertaining to related themes will also 
be considered:

•	Changes in government regulation of higher education fields and 
universities.
•	Changes in the composition of organizational level governing bodies 
and the selection of university leaders
•	Changes in funding, particularly the degree to which market solutions 
is being introduced.
•	Changes in the selection and promotion of faculty.
•	The changing nature of university-industry relationships and their 
implications for the structuring and administration of universities.
•	The implications of the increasing use of evaluations and rankings 
for higher education and universities.
•	The implications of the changes that have been taking place on the 
structure of higher education fields and the role of universities with 
respect to the construction of national and international elites.

Both conceptual and empirical papers are invited. Empirical papers 
could be case studies of individual or a small number of organizations 
as well as larger scale quantitative investigations. Comparative 
research would be particularly welcome. One additional aim of the 
conference is to provide a platform for the production of an edited 
book.

Abstracts of around 500 words should be submitted through the MEHEM 
website (www.mehem.org) latest by 31 May 2009. Authors will be notified 
about acceptance latest by the end of June. Some funds are available to 
cover travel and lodging expenses. Please do indicate any needs for 
funding when submitting your abstract.


Organizers

Behlül Üsdiken, Sabanci University, Turkey ([log in to unmask])
Lars Engwall, Uppsala University, Sweden ([log in to unmask])
Carmelo Mazza, Grenoble EM, France ([log in to unmask])
Paolo Quattrone, University of Oxford, UK ([log in to unmask])
Angelo Riccaboni, University of Siena, Italy ([log in to unmask])

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