COLLABORATION – A THREAT TO ACADEMIC AUTONOMY.pdf

COLLABORATION – A THREAT TO ACADEMIC AUTONOMY? Sandra Jones School of Management RMIT University, Australia sandra.jones@.au Abstract Universities have historically encouraged individual academics with research expertise in a discrete area of study to undertake research and teaching in their discipline. In this process academics have had full autonomy, from the discovery of knowledge, the method used to integrate and interpret it, and the means used to convey it to students and to assess student learning. In recent times pressures for change have affected universities. First, business requires graduates with broad knowledge and skill capabilities as well as discipline-based content knowledge. Second, universities are required to demonstrate quality control and improvement. Third, private expenditure has replaced a previous almost complete reliance on publicly provided university places. Finally, technological advance has made possible more flexible and innovative learning opportunities. It is argued in this paper that these changes require a new culture of collaboration to supplement academic autonomy. Academics are required to collaborate across disciplines. Cross-functional collaboration is required between academic and non-academics. In so doing the paper calls for university structures and practices that support collaboration. Keywords collaboration, universities, academic autonomy Introduction – The External Environment It is argued that the productivity of a modern corporation lies more in its intellectual and systems capabilities than its hard assets. Quinn, Anderson and Finkelstein (1996) state that the intellect of an organisation lies within the firm’s human brain and includes “cognitive knowledge (know what), advanced skills (know how), systems understanding and trained intuition (know why), and self- motivated creativity (care why)” (p. 7). Developing intellect, they go on to argue, requires a move away from traditional organisational cognitive skills tr