The Use of Performance Models in Higher Education: A Comparative International Review

Creator

Janet Atkinson-Grosjean
Garnet Grosjean

Files

Publisher

Arizona State University, University of South Florida

Publication Date

June 2000

Abstract

Higher education (HE) administrators worldwide are responding to performance-based state agendas for public institutions. Largely ideologically-driven, this international fixation on performance is also advanced by the operation of isomorphic forces within HE's institutional field. Despite broad agreements on the validity of performance goals, there is no "one best" model or predictable set of consequences. Context matters. Responses are conditioned by each nation's historical and cultural institutional legacy. To derive a generalized set of consequences, issues, and impacts, we used a comparative international format to examine the way performance models are applied in the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Our theoretical framework draws on understandings of performance measures as normalizing instruments of governmentality in the "evaluative state," supplemented by field theory of organizations. Our conclusion supports Gerard Delanty's contention, that universities need to redefine accountability in a way that repositions them at the heart of their social and civic communities.

Keywords

Higher education, Competency-based education

Extent

35

Volume

8

Issue

30

Language

English

Media Type

Journals (Periodicals)

Format

Digital Only

Identifier

E11-00174

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Atkinson-Grosjean, Janet and Grosjean, Garnet, "The Use of Performance Models in Higher Education: A Comparative International Review" (2000). Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA). 53.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/usf_EPAA/53