Dissertation summary

In 1997 the Dutch legislature passed a new Act on university governance. The basic principles of universities' internal authority structure were substantially changed with the objective to increase the quality of teaching and research, the decisiveness of university management and institutional autonomy. This new Act is usually referred to as the 'MUB': Modernization University Governance Organization. However, the achievement of the goals of legislative reforms cannot be taken for granted, as indicated by the titles of two classical studies in this area: Implementation: How great expectations in Washington are dashed in Oakland; or, why it's amazing that federal programs work at all (Pressman & Wildavsky 1974) and Great expectations and mixed performance: the implementation of higher education reforms in Europe (Cerych & 2 D ISSERTATION SUMMARY Sabatier 1986). Therefore, it is interesting to assess the effects of this new Act, inquiring whether change is actually achieved or is it 'business as usual'? If the interest is in the effectiveness of an institutional reform, at least three questions should be asked (cf. First, it is necessary to ascertain whether the institutional changes have actually been implemented, for example, have the universities initiated new governing bodies? In other words, have the universities met the 'objective' requirements of the new Act? 1 With respect to the MUB-act this appears to be the case. Several reports indicate that the universities have formally changed their authority structure (e.g. commissie Datema 1998). The second question in an analysis of institutional reform is whether in practice the new rules of the game have an impact on actors' behaviour. The MUB-reform can be considered effective if, and only if, the university actors have changed their behaviour in accordance with the intentions and expectations of the legislation. Behavioural modification is a prerequisite for a successful reform. When it can be observed that behaviour has changed, the third question is to what extent does the altered behaviour contribute to the realization of the goals of the reform. Is goal achievement realized through the changes in behaviour intended by the legislation? If all three questions are answered in the affirmative, the MUB-reform can be regarded as effective. However, if the answer to one or more of the questions is negative, then the effectiveness of the MUB-act must be questioned. This study focuses on the second question listed above and therefore seeks to determine the effects of the MUB-act on the behaviour …