Contribution
Description: GOVERNING BODIES IN UK. BACKGROUND. Over the past decade, HE in the UK has faced a lot of pressures as a result of the effects of globalisation, internationalisation and GATS (Enders, 2002) and this has necessitated a change of governance system in the universities from the collegial form of governance to a culture of corporate governance in order to address these challenges. The Committee of University Chairmen in the UK has formulated a corporate governance framework for adoption by university governing bodies to assist them in the effective performance of their governance tasks.RESEARCH PURPOSE. The purpose of this research is to explore how university governors in UK perceive, understand and perform their governance roles and practices, whether they are cognisant of the parameters of corporate governance and how they organise the governance activities to achieve the desired governance objectives. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE. Exploring the perceptions of university governors concerning their governance roles and practices can be used to identify aspects of best governance practices in order to inform policy and improve governance practices within the HE sector in UK.In view of the under-researched nature of the activities of university governing bodies in the UK, this study will contribute immensely to filling the identified yawning gap in the empirical literature on university governance.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. The trusteeship theory of corporate governance (Kay and Silberston, 1995) and communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) form the theoretical framework for this study.The trusteeship theory views public corporation as a social entity which is not owned by anybody because the corporation is an independent legal entity and the trust to act in the interest of society on the part of the governing body is the fulcrum on which the trustee model thrives. The university governing body is conceptualised in this study as the trustee based on the assumptions of the trusteeship theory.Community of practice (CoP) is a forum where organisation members with a common interest in some activities or professional practice voluntarily come together to share their knowledge and learn from each other. In the process of participating in CoP, members develop a shared understanding of their work practices and problem-solving skills. The university governing body is conceptualised in this study as a CoP where members come to share governance knowledge acquired from business and industry.RESEARCH QUESTIONS. In order to address the purpose of this study five research questions were formulated as follows:i. How do university governors perceive, understand and carry out their governance roles and practices?ii. How effective do university governors think they are performing the work of governance?
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