When one thinks of Governance, one could think of a Ruler or the government of a body. For Higher Ed, governance is defined as “all the structures, processes and activities that are involved in the planning and direction of the institution and people working in tertiary education”. Planning and direction by who? When one thinks of Higher Ed in the United States, we may think of autonomy and academic freedom and the freedom of speech, the ability to express without being repressed. But for other areas of the world, Higher Ed appears to be more of a government institution with central control by the government. As Higher Ed increased in numbers around the globe and became more diverse, state funds became less and the need for autonomy within an institution became a really good idea. Institutions were delighted with autonomy and faculty was thrilled with the idea of having control over what they teach and how they teach. But has autonomy actually led to increase quality of an institution or has autonomy just led to the concentration of power to the top people in the university. Even within the institution itself, someone had to be in control and lead. Presidents became powerful so the need for checks and balances had to be instilled. For this reason, the so called state control model is being substituted by state supervising model rather than the autonomous model.

Another effect of autonomy within an institution is the reality of more responsibility for all. Just like anything else in life, if you want to have control over something, you have to grin and bear the growing pains and just do it and work at it to reap the benefits. For countries with fewer funds, they are not able to take on this huge responsibility and for those countries, the state remains in control. Who is better off? It depends!

As something grows and expands, there is a need for more discipline in order for it to become successful. As Higher Ed continues to grow into a global business, the need for discipline is great whether it be from the state or from the institution itself. Within the global spectrum, with internationalization, there is so much to be considered and there is so much influence from governments, that the we begin to become confused on who is the “I“ in autonomy?