- Title
- Mission possible? An analysis of Australian universities’ missions
- Creator
- Chow, Christina
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
- Description
- This dissertation represents the first comprehensive study of Australian university mission statements and mission-related documents. It comes at a time when universities are experiencing global challenges presented by the knowledge economy, global competition and rapid advances in information and communication technologies. In Australia, further pressure on universities has resulted from a government policy that attempts to align universities with these global challenges and to extend the traditional purpose of a university into new areas. The Australian Government’s introduction of Mission-based Compacts has provided an opportunity to address a deficit in Australian university mission document research. Hence the aim of this research is to compare a major Government policy directive, Transforming Australia’s Higher Education System (Australian Government 2009), with university mission statements and Mission-based Compact documents in order to evaluate the extent of alignment between the two. Content analysis is used to analyse the universities’ mission-related documents in relation to three specific questions: the extent to which universities specify formal mission statements; the extent to which mission-related documents reflect the government policy directive; and the extent to which mission-related documents demonstrate institutional diversity. The analyses find that: one, although Australian universities are reluctant to use the label ‘mission statement’, their statements include the majority of mission components required of corporate mission statements; two, with the exception of academic freedom, universities have complied with the government policy directive to meet the challenges of the 21st century and to extend their functions to incorporate greater access and equity, contribute to the economy and enhance Australia’s international standing; and three, institutional diversity within the mission-related documents is limited. Overall the university mission-related documents comply with the government policy directive and address the global challenges. However, the extent to which their stated goals are realisable is questionable given the Government’s contradictory and unitary policy settings and funding mechanisms. As the research is the first of its kind in Australia, it raises a number of important questions and opens the way for further mission-related research in Australian higher education.
- Subject
- university mission; mission statement; mission-based compact
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/939749
- Identifier
- uon:12873
- Rights
- Copyright 2013 Christina Chow
- Language
- eng
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |