P28 The Governance of Universities and the Innovation Agenda: Navigating Performance, Public Value, and Entrepreneurial Futures

Panel Members & Contact Details

Kate Williams, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy. Email: kate.williams@unimelb.edu.au

Jenny Lewis, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Professor of Policy and Politics. Email: jmlewis@unimelb.ed.au

Alessandro Carlos da Silva Junior, Associate Professor, Federal University of Fronteira Sul, Brazil. Email: alessandro.ufvadm@gmail.com

Magnus Luiz Emmendoerfer, Associate Professor, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil. Email: magnus@ufv.br

Josiel Lopes Valadares, Associate Professor, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil. Email: josiel.valdares@ufv.br

Summary

Universities are being reshaped by governance logics drawn from broader public sector reforms, driving new tensions between performance, accountability, and public value. This panel explores how managerialism, global metrics, and entrepreneurial strategies influence academic behaviour, institutional identity, and societal engagement. It invites contributions that examine how universities navigate these pressures through innovation, policy experimentation, and evolving governance architectures.

Description

Universities are undergoing far-reaching transformations, shaped by shifting demands for performance, accountability, and public value. This panel investigates how contemporary governance logics — often imported from broader public sector reforms — are reshaping universities’ roles, strategies, and identities. We examine how managerialism, impact agendas, and global metrics regimes converge with pressures for innovation, stakeholder engagement, and entrepreneurialism, resulting in new tensions and hybrid governance architectures.

A key focus will be on how governance frameworks not only influence academic behaviour and institutional priorities but also create openings for entrepreneurial strategy and policy experimentation. This includes how universities mobilize their knowledge production capacity, diversify funding, and build partnerships to address societal challenges in fiscally constrained environments. Drawing on diverse traditions — including new public management, sociologies of quantification, valuation studies, and public entrepreneurship — the panel invites empirical and theoretical contributions that interrogate:

• The rise and impact of research assessment frameworks (e.g., REF, ERA, VQR) on academic behaviour, identity, and legitimacy.
• The diffusion and governance implications of global performance metrics (e.g., citations, rankings, impact factors).
• Innovation and entrepreneurship in university strategy: how institutions reconfigure their missions to optimize resources, enhance well-being, and deliver societal impact.
• The role of policy entrepreneurs within and beyond academia: change agents who leverage knowledge, networks, and timing to reshape governance arrangements.
• Comparative analyses of national science and innovation policies and their institutional effects on the higher education sector.
• Conceptual reflections on value, legitimacy, and power in academic governance and institutional transformation.

This panel aims to bridge public management, higher education studies, and innovation policy to foster an integrated understanding of how universities are governed and strategically reoriented in an era of accountability, competition, and complex societal need. We particularly welcome contributions that reflect on how institutional entrepreneurial orientation — including knowledge transfer, stakeholder partnerships, and academic innovation — is reshaping the public value proposition of universities