The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines governance as:
“The system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs.”
The Cadbury Report used the definition "the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Boards of Directors are responsible for the governance of their companies...The responsibilities of the Board include setting the company's strategic aims, providing the leadership to put them into effect, supervising the management of the business and reporting to shareholders on their stewardship."
Michael Shattock defines university governance as: “the constitutional forms and processes through which universities govern their affairs." Shattock adds that while governance and management are theoretically separate functions (management is more about the preparation of policy proposals; the implementation of what is agreed and the efficient and effective deployment of resources), they have close interrelationships in the higher education context, in a way not always seen in the corporate world because governance operates at many more levels in the university context than in many other fields.
Governance generally comprises at least 4 elements:
A typology of governance, set out in A Review of Governance and Strategic Leadership in English Further Education and developed in the Independent Review of HE Governance in Wales distinguishes;
More information on academic governance and governance not management.
<<Return to previous page To next page>>