The New Power University: The social purpose of higher education in the 21st century

Chapter 9

Structuring and governance

The New Power University will need to adapt its structures and governance to flourish within a broader ecosystem

In his book The Australian Idea of a University, Glyn Davis worries how alike higher education institutions are in Australia and how this creates a risk to the sector from external shocks. His main explanation for this homogeneity is the path dependency created by the foundation of The University of Sydney in 1850, which provided the blueprint for subsequent Australian universities.

This idea of path dependency also applies to universities beyond Australia. It is extraordinary how universities across the world are still broadly modelled on the structures developed at the University of Bologna and ...