UNIVERSITY, POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT: APPROACHES TO INTERPRETATION AND PERSPECTIVES ON ANALYSIS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION.  The growing challenges and transformations of the systems and institutions of higher education have emphasized the great significance of its governance. Particularly, we recognize that universities have experienced modifications in recent times that have generated important effects on its stages and decision-making processes. These effects have enhanced the academic and practical interest in this strategic point of view on the contemporary university. METHOD. In this text, we deal with the general topic of university governance as a subject of study. We examine some approaches that have addressed this issue since the decade of 1970s, especially in the United States and Europe. Through selection and analysis of the literature relevant to the topic, we review some schools of thought that have addressed the issue since the seventies, particularly in the U.S. and Europe.  RESULTS. We describe, in general terms, the most significant contributions of such approaches as well as the categories of analysis and the proposed general models. We set out the main lines of continuity and change in the debate. DISCUSSION. Our discussion is about the current conditions and challenges discernible for understanding campus relations at the levels of the system and institutions, political processes that affect the exercise of authority, direction and control of the contemporary university.