Mapping the Borderland of the Knowledge Society: Strategic Global Partnerships and Organizational Responses of Universities in Transition
Creators: name: Szyszlo, Peter
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2018
Subjects: Globalization
Knowledge Society
Knowledge Economy
Internationalization
Higher Education
Institutional Change
Ukraine
European Higher Education Area
Higer Education Reform
European Research Area
Higher Education Policy Travel

description: Globalization has motivated universities to calibrate institutional responses for strategic purposes. Yet, specific challenges remain for Ukrainian National Research Universities insofar as the interplay between global and (post-)Soviet knowledge discourses reveal a dual framework, whereby adaptive responses to globalization and entrenched state-centered logics run parallel, and often in conflict, with one another. This study took a critical approach to identify and interpret how the phenomenon of internationalization manifested in the development of strategic partnerships, was translated and re-contextualized into structural innovations, and resulted in systemic institutional change. The thesis delves into the institutional behaviour of three flagship universities in Kyiv, Ukraine and their respective doctoral schools. The selected universities – Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv – represent a mixture of organizational types which fall into one or more of the three education archetypes, including the Humboldtian, Soviet and Anglo-American models. These governance models allow for differentiation of institutional interpretations of internationalization and a means of capturing the various ways in which university actors negotiate their spaces of action and translate higher education discourses into practice. The analysis addresses issues of ‘hybridity’ which is not evident in this categorization. The study attempts to problematize internationalization anew by shifting focus on non-linear accounts of the phenomenon in order to comprehend the complex, multi-faceted and often contradictory ways the process plays out across different university landscapes. The inquiry employs conceptualizations combining the Delta Cycle for Internationalization (Rumbley 2010) and a new institutional approach (North 1990). The study is structured as a single-case embedded case study design as described by Yin (2015). Data were collected via 45 semi-structured interviews with university actors and higher education stakeholder agencies, including: senior administrators, mid-level leaders, faculty members and doctoral candidates. The data were supported by scholarly literature, official documents, reports, strategy papers, grey materials, policy statements, field notes. as well as university and ministerial websites. These data were analyzed for content and triangulated according to a modified content analysis approach. This study expands and contributes knowledge on the internationalization of higher education by distinguishing variations of how the phenomenon manifested within different university settings. It examines the place of the university as an organization that not only produces and disseminates knowledge, but assimilates and adapts global knowledge to national needs. Finally, the inquiry explores internationalization as an academic innovation and a process of institutional change which shapes academic identities and legitimizes the university as a global actor.