Governance and compliance in higher education

Why this subject belongs at the conference

An academic unit is accountable to many parties at once. It answers to its own institution, to accrediting bodies, to funders and to the law. Meeting those obligations while protecting the time and trust of academic staff is a genuine administrative challenge, and it is one that looks similar in every discipline.

Papers in this area examine how institutions set policy, how they demonstrate that policy is followed, and how they handle the tension between oversight and academic freedom.

Themes that appear in submissions

• Building a governance structure that faculty understand and accept.
• Preparing for accreditation and responding to a review.
• Designing internal audit so that it improves practice rather than only catching faults.
• Protecting institutional and student data while respecting privacy.
• Managing records retention and the lawful handling of information.
• Reporting to governing boards in a way that supports good decisions.

Frameworks that authors often reference

Authors frequently frame their work against an external standard so that readers can compare institutions. Two references that appear often are the governance and risk guidance published by NIST and the sector resources published by EDUCAUSE. Neither organisation is affiliated with ICLAHE, and they are mentioned here only as widely used references.