{"title":"Virtual gown and town: The Athabasca University crisis and the conflict of institutional logics","authors":"Glen A. Jones","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12534","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The objective of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of ‘crisis’ in higher education through the analysis of a unique series of events involving a decisive change in the relationship between a university and the state. A descriptive case study approach is used to investigate the crisis in governance at Athabasca University, an open university located in Alberta, Canada. Factors leading to the crisis included the university leadership's decision to move forward with plans to become a near-virtual organization, concerns by local town that a loss of university employees in the region would be an economic catastrophe, and political opportunism on the part of the elected provincial leaders who decided to address the problems raised by the town and shift the mandate of the university. Drawing on institutional theory and the concept of institutional logics, the paper analyses the episodic nature of the crisis and explores both the nature of the conflict and its resolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12534","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hequ.12534","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of ‘crisis’ in higher education through the analysis of a unique series of events involving a decisive change in the relationship between a university and the state. A descriptive case study approach is used to investigate the crisis in governance at Athabasca University, an open university located in Alberta, Canada. Factors leading to the crisis included the university leadership's decision to move forward with plans to become a near-virtual organization, concerns by local town that a loss of university employees in the region would be an economic catastrophe, and political opportunism on the part of the elected provincial leaders who decided to address the problems raised by the town and shift the mandate of the university. Drawing on institutional theory and the concept of institutional logics, the paper analyses the episodic nature of the crisis and explores both the nature of the conflict and its resolution.
期刊介绍:
Higher Education Quarterly publishes articles concerned with policy, strategic management and ideas in higher education. A substantial part of its contents is concerned with reporting research findings in ways that bring out their relevance to senior managers and policy makers at institutional and national levels, and to academics who are not necessarily specialists in the academic study of higher education. Higher Education Quarterly also publishes papers that are not based on empirical research but give thoughtful academic analyses of significant policy, management or academic issues.