Page 8 - Professorial Lecture - Professor P van Rooyen

individuals’ who lack the capacity to be political agents, or to think for
themselves (John Stuart Mill, in Wolff, 2006).

Today, universities are internationally more and more linked to the
knowledge economy agenda. Their role in creating more and better
knowledge, education and innovation has for example been highlighted by
emphasizing that: investing more and better in the modernisation and
quality of universities is a direct investment in the future of countries all over
the world.

Universities are perceived to be more important and their potential more
promising than ever, and the incentive for the political system to intervene
in the governance and strategic management of these institutions is thus
greater than ever. However, higher education institutions are highly change-
resistant and greatly influenced by their own culture, norms and values.
Reforms tend to take unforeseen turns and implementation is often
difficult.

Reform ideas are often described as New Public Management (NPM) ideas,
indicating that the higher education reforms are closely connected to the
more general public sector reform. Idealised reform elements are indeed
quite similar to those seen in the more general reforms:

 devolution and decentralization
 increased marketization and consumer-orientation
 measures taken to enhance the competitive state of the sector
 cross-sector collaboration and coordination

Debates on development include divergent paradigms:

 Top-down vs. bottom-up approaches to development
 The role of the entrepreneur vs. the needs of the masses
 Asset creation vs. basic needs satisfaction
 Socialism vs. capitalism

6 |