Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent (CHEGG)
The Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent (CHEGG) was established in 2013. It aims to increase our scholarly and practical understanding of higher education governance and policy.
Research
Governance of higher education systems
We are interested in how key higher education policy actors develop governance architectures and specific policies and instruments in an increasingly dynamic policy environment. These dynamics play out e.g. with respect to the mix of regulatory and market coordination mechanisms visible in contemporary higher education systems; they also play out at different governance levels: national, regional and supranational.
To what extent this mix should be judged as a parsimonious governance effort or a “dangerous cocktail” will be explored by investigating the impact of these governance arrangements on stakeholders in higher education: particularly the higher education institutions, but also their academic staff and students.
Institutional governance
A gradual change is taking place towards seeing higher education institutions as organisations with agency. With the changing, and arguably more volatile and challenging, national and supranational contexts, there appears to be more leeway – although not in every respect – for higher education institutions.
In this part of the research project, we try to gain insight in the (strategic) choices made by these institutions to survive, gain legitimacy and position themselves. The above seems to suggest that higher education institutions are homogeneous actors, but we also would like to explore which conditions favour divergence. One strand of the programme also zooms in on the internal dynamics within higher education institutions and revolves around notions of power, decision-making and resistance.
Research on higher education
As the field of higher education research is maturing, it is important to take stock of achievements in our field, as well as critically assess where improvements are called for. We therefore increasingly reflect on the state of the art in specific areas, by
- literature reviews
- critical assessments
- future-oriented analyses.
Education
Contemporary Challenges of Higher Education
This 6 ECTS English-taught unit of the Master’s in Sociology study programme aims to introduce the students to the key themes and challenges in contemporary higher education and higher education research.
Higher education is an interdisciplinary field, hence different themes – using different social science perspectives, primarily sociology and political sciences – will be explored: system dynamics, internationalisation, higher education institutions as organisations and inequalities.
PhD
The centre hosts a fair amount of PhD students, all working in the area of higher education. Many of the students are part-time. Those interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in Sociology with a focus on higher education are invited to contact Jeroen Huisman.
More information about doctoral research at Ghent University
Team
Professor
Senior Researchers
PhD students
Contact
Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent (CHEGG)
Prof. Jeroen Huisman
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41
9000 Gent
+32 9 264 69 78