Academic power and institutional control of academia in Argentine public universities within the context of a managerial governance model

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to study academic institutional power in Argentina within a context of change in university governance, from a collegial to a managerial model. These transformations have been well studied in the higher education systems of developed countries, yet in Latin America these studies are still emergent. Higher education in Argentina has experienced deep transformations since the mid-1990s. In addition to institutional expansion and enrolment growth, further changes have taken place in relation to the state, with a public policy agenda based on the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm. These changes slowly influenced the functioning of public institutions with a tendency towards greater managerialization of university tasks, including academic ones. New areas and roles were created in relation to workload management and as a response to state policies, encompassing the areas of teaching, research and social engagement. Furthermore, the traditional collegial governance model of decision-making, which for decades has characterized the Argentine university, seems to have begun veering towards a more vertical governance model. Our aim, therefore, is to analyse how these changes to university governance impact on the academic profession in Argentina, focusing on different aspects related to its institutional power. To do this, we have relied on data from the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-Based Society (APIKS) survey.