Academic interdisciplinarity has become a powerful means of addressing challenges facing contemporary society as well as offering opportunities to advance knowledge. To better understand the role of university interdisciplinary organizations (IDOs), the authors studied 18 IDOs at Stanford University in the USA. They propose that IDOs not only…

The purpose of this study was to understand how academic deans describe the competing logics influencing academic program development. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from eight participants employed as academic deans in mid-sized, private universities with a Basic Carnegie Classification as a Doctoral University. The study…

This survey of faculty advisers examined major variables and findings of past research on student-run agencies using organizational theory. Larger agencies appeared to offer training in more formalized business procedures among a more diverse client base, found in previous research to be helpful to student-run agency graduates now on the job.…

Higher education institutions' organizational identities, cultures, and praxis have neglected to honor the values, culture, and knowledge assets of Latinx communities, making it difficult to gain educational justice and equity, which could be attained through Latinx-centered models of higher education. The Latinx higher education experience needs…

This article deals with the institutional theory and isomorphism, from the processes of organizational change in higher education institutions. In a first phase, we analyze, through a questionnaire, the situations and causes of change in higher education institutions (HEI), more precisely in the field knowledge of Physical Education in Colombia.…

This article aims to investigate whether national differences in the institutionalization of the binary divide between universities and Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) lead to different outcomes in performing Academics' Societal Engagement (ASE). Two institutional theory-based core differences of European binary higher education (HE)…

Prior literature on resilience in the Latina and Latino community focuses on student resilience. In this paper we argue that it is also important to consider e among the colleges and universities that enroll large percentages of Latina and Latino students. Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) often come under undue public scrutiny, sometimes…

Though understudied, academic structure reflects and shapes the central work--education, research, service--of higher education organizations (HEOs). Academic structure also shapes and illuminates the external environments and internal dynamics of HEOs. Despite the centrality of academic structure to HEOs and their work, our knowledge of it is…

Globalizing forces have both transformed the higher education sector and made it increasingly homogenous. Growing similarities among universities have been attributed to isomorphic pressures to ensure and/or enhance legitimacy by imitating higher education institutions that are perceived as successful internationally, particularly universities…

Following decades of quality management featuring in higher education settings, questions regarding its implementation, impact and outcomes remain. Indeed, leaving aside anecdotal case studies and value-laden documentaries of best practice, current research still knows very little about the implementation of quality management in teaching and…

The systems view of quality postulates that product or service quality comes as the result of interactions between various components that comprise a production process. In view of this, most problems in the organization, like an institution of higher education, can be attributed to the system. To be effective, any quality improvement initiative…

The managed university functions as the prominent organizational paradigm in higher education. Returning to Max Weber's original analysis of bureaucracy, several fundamental characteristics of the managed university come to surface, including the emphasis on specialization, hierarchy, and secrecy. Among these characteristics is the importance of…

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the Ontario-led strategic mandate agreement (SMA) planning exercise. Focusing on the self-generated strategic mandates of five universities (McMaster, Ottawa, Queen's, Toronto, and Western), we asked how universities responded to this exercise of strategic visioning? The answer to this question is…

Liberal education as a form of higher education is increasing globally even as it struggles for support and legitimacy in the USA. Its emergence and spread are only partially attributable to the growth in the tertiary sector worldwide: although the sharpest spike has been in Asia, new programs have opened in Western Europe, Russia and the Middle…

This article examines the rise of "test-optional" college admissions policies since the 1990s. I argue that the rationalization of college admissions policies after World War II contributed to the rise of "meritocratic" stratification (in policy) and standardized tests, like the SAT, but it also led to the expansion and…