Identifying indicators of university autonomy according to stakeholders’ interests

This paper is an attempt to reconcile two different perspectives and come up with a more comprehensive conceptualization of university autonomy by adopting a stakeholder approach in identifying indicators of university autonomy. One perspective views university autonomy as a protection of academic freedom and the other as a performance enhancer. In order to secure public support for university autonomy, a strategy to satisfy both perspectives is required. A stakeholder approach helps identifying stakeholder interests which leads to an analysis of what is expected in return for university autonomy. University autonomy indicators developed out of these interests would facilitate a measure to evaluate and secure academic freedom and institutional autonomy in a way that secures better support for university autonomy from higher education stakeholders. This paper examines existing literature to identify higher education stakeholders and their interests and comes up with an example of autonomy indicators that reflect these interests.