11/07/2024, 10:00 - 12:30, Essen
The administrative workload placed on academic staff varies internationally. This workshop on 11 July 2024 compares key findings from recent studies about the three university systems of Germany, Czech Republic, and Australia, which represent different traditions and approaches to the organisation and governance of academic work. Increasing administrative burden is a critical policy and governance issue because it reduces the time and energy university staff can devote to research and teaching.
This workshop will contrast and compare key findings from recent survey-based studies concerning the administrative burdens experienced by academic staff conducted in three national university systems of Germany, Czech Republic, and Australia. In doing so, it hopes to contribute to attaining a better understanding of the specific dimensions and potential drivers of administrative burden within universities, responding to what appears to be growing concern about increasing administrative burdens within universities internationally. Increasing administrative burden – a concept referring to the various demands associated with carrying out administrative tasks – is a critical policy and governance issue because any such increase implies a reduction in the time and energy university staff can devote to the core activities of research and teaching.
The three national cases to be discussed at the workshop represent different traditions and approaches to the organisation and governance of academic work, thus providing opportunity for fruitful comparison. German universities continue to be in key respects dominated by a chair model granting professors considerable autonomy and control over local academic activities, as well as some dedicated administrative support, yet also considerable responsibilities for the local management of staff and funds. Czech universities, by contrast, operate in a post-communist national context that has seen significant transformation over recent decades in terms of institutional management approaches and national funding settings. Australian universities, finally, present an example of a department-model but which also has been enduringly transformed by New Public Management approaches and the accompanying emphases on operational efficiency, performance management and accountability.
The workshop is organised and chaired by Peter Woelert, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Melbourne who is currently a Senior Fellow at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, and his tandem partner Uwe Wilkesmann, Professor for Organisation Studies and Management of Continuing Education at TU Dortmund University and Director of the Centre for Higher Education (zhb).
The number of participants is limited. Please register by 10 July, 12 pm.
The workshop will take place at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities.