Boundaries of institutional autonomy and their impact on higher education

Abstract

Institutional autonomy and the related concepts of academic or scientific freedom are defining characteristics of academe. ‘‘The university is the corporate realization of man’s basic determination to know’’ ( Jaspers, 1960: 20), and it is this classic notion of knowledge as sacrosanct upon which arguments for the autonomy of the university are ultimately grounded. Traditionally, it was assumed that the purpose or idea of the university was best served by its separation from government, on the one hand, and society, on the other. The state served as the guardian rather than the determiner of academic principles, with the issue being ‘‘how far higher education institutions are licensed to be free to set their own norms, or even to be in conflict or tension with the society that sponsors them to be its antibodies’’ (Kogan, 1984: 67). For most contemporary higher education institutions, however, the boundaries of institutional autonomy have become exceedingly porous.