Trust and institutional values in higher education

Enslin, P. and Hedge, N. (2021) Trust and institutional values in higher education. In: Mahon, Á. (ed.) The Promise of the University: Reclaiming Humanity, Humility, and Hope. Series: Debating higher education: philosophical perspectives. Springer: Singapore, pp. 41-53. ISBN 9789811652769 (doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6_4)

Abstract

It is apparently no longer adequate for universities to describe their role as producing knowledge for the social good. While protecting academic freedom and autonomy are still seen as necessary, it is not enough to describe university purposes in such terms. Hence the requirement that, following the corporate world and neoliberal imperatives, universities should declare their aims in mission and vision statements and also supplement these visions by displaying core institutional values. This paper is framed around three inter-related concerns about such university values, which demand scrutiny by philosophers of education interested in the future of universities in the UK and beyond. Our first concern is about the selection of values proclaimed by HEIs. We focus also on the implications of the currently fashionable declarations of values by most UK universities for trust between management and academics. Our concern here is largely about the practice of requiring academics at some institutions to articulate and demonstrate how they enact those values in, for example, performance reviews. Finally, we suggest that, far from fostering ethical behaviour in universities, managerialist appropriation of values in HEIs could instead foster the dubious values at the heart of the neoliberal higher education regime.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Enslin, Professor Penny and Hedge, Professor Nicki
• Authors: Enslin, P., and Hedge, N.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > People, Place & Social Change; College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Social Justice Place and Lifelong Education
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 9789811652769
• Published Online: 09 January 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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