There have been some really thought-provoking articles on Wonkhe recently about the current state of governance in higher education and the importance of culture, particularly when attempting to facilitate a more generative approach to governance.
Important issues around overly complex bureaucracy, lack of democracy, and an over-focus on compliance, have been surfaced – and there has been suggestions that we haven’t made nearly enough progress challenging the lack of diversity on Boards and the formation of cliques and hierarchies within them.
It has led me to ask the question: how much progress have we actually made?
This year Advance HE is celebrating 20 years of supporting governance effectiveness in higher education, so we are well-placed to offer some insight about the changing face of governance. We have conducted over 60 governance effectiveness reviews in the last 4 years and have the privilege of hearing the views of hundreds of governors and governance professionals each year in the course of our work. This tells an interesting story about how the sector and its focus on governance is shifting.
