Changing Concepts of ‘The University’ and Oxford’s Governance Debates, 1850s–2000s

Abstract

Many authors lament what they see as the decline of higher education traditions of collegial self-governance and institutional autonomy. Some histories on university governance and management suggest that universities are in a state of fundamental disrepair. However, what appears to be decline may simply be transformation. From the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century British higher education has faced dramatic upheaval and demand for reform. These changes include the massification of higher education, the rebirth of the global higher education market, and the rise of new managerialism. Oxford University is an institution that has faced and responded to these pressures with changes to its governance structures. This paper considers Oxford’s governance reviews over the period 1850–2006 as a tool to understand global higher education reform and considers the impact of reform on how Oxford is institutionally governed.