Managing to be different? Strategic imagination or ‘strategic’ imitation?
- Gary Rhoades, University of Arizona
Chair: Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research)
Introduction of the speaker: Professor Michael Shattock, UCL Institute of Education
The annual Burton R Clark lecture on higher education has been established by the UCL Institute of Education on the basis of a generous donation by Adele Clark, widow of the late Burton R (‘Bob’) Clark (1921-2009).
Are universities characterised more by imagination or imitation in their strategies? In representing themselves to prospective international students are universities pursuing distinctive niche markets, or are their efforts characterised more by isomorphic patterns within and across national boundaries as they seek prestige and/or revenue?
In the national and global competition for international students, amid local demands for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability, Professor Rhoades pursues these questions in comparative case studies of universities in South Africa, the UK, and the US.
What he finds in the case studies is that while within and among countries there are significant variations among universities in goals, there are also significant particularities to their paths. Imitative dimensions are at play, but so too are imaginative strategies in what are market-like activities in form and content.
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