Governance and Management in Higher Education: the Argentine case

MARQUINA ,MÓNICA; FERNÁNDEZ MAMARRA, NORBERTO

Jacksonville

Congreso; 2008 ASHE Conference; 2008

American Society of Hgher Education

The Argentine Academic Profession belatedly begins to take shape towards the middle of the 20th, with the University Cordoba Reform of 1918 having an important effect in terms of national government autonomy and democratic institutional governance composed by professors, students and alumni. Intra- and inter-institutional heterogeneity, successive institutional disruptions and political interventions in university life plus the unplanned expansion as a product of the expansion of the enrolment are the principal features of our academic profession. A consequence of this last trend is the majority presence of part time teachers.    During the ´90s a government agenda for the sector was implemented placing the emphasis on the efficiency of the institutional administration and improvement in educational quality.  These policies have modified the faculty work, their socialisation mechanisms and their practices. Thus a ?type? of academic begins to take form, characterised for having a high level of postgraduate education and the requirement of developing teaching and research duties. Within this framework academic activity begins to be evaluated according to criteria of productivity in research -more than in teaching- with different incentives and regulations being introduced.  Public policies regarding academics have generated changes in the system of recognition and recompenses which explain interests, affiliations, and institutional involvement.