Revitalising the enterprise university post-COVID 19: a focus on business schools

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide a polemic on the evolution of universities and business schools over the past two decades. During this period, universities have increasingly adopted a self-interested stance using business-like practices and behaviours to justify their transformation. The authors provide recommendations aimed at enhancing universities’ contributions and relevance to society, increasing their sustainability broadly defined and better positioning them to help solve wicked problems in a post-COVID-19 world. Design/methodology/approach This polemic analyses prior literature relating to the evolution of universities and uses this to generate a framework for ways forward for their improvement. Findings The authors argue that the evolution of universities into entities with missions and operations designed to mimic business and commercial imperatives has yielded undesirable outcomes including the muddling of the core mission of universities, alienation of key stakeholders and an excessive focus on income growth. Business schools face a tension between forging their own, unique identities and simultaneously striving to meet university university objectives. We term this “the Business School identity paradox”. The authors contend that the way forward requires senior management to re-discover the essence of what it means to be a university, re-establish collegial decision-making within universities that includes built-in feedback loops and a fundamental emphasis on developing graduates with an enlightened perspective that goes beyond technical skills. Originality/value This paper is novel in that it analyses the evolution of the “Enterprise University” some 20 years after this term was first coined and in a radically changed environment following the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis is also forward-looking as the authors re-imagine universities and business schools by identifying opportunities for renewal and improvement in their focus and societal impact. The authors also develop a schema that identifies major influences on universities and business schools, the impact of COVID-19 and strategies for them post-COVID-19.

Distance learning as emergency remote teaching vs. traditional learning for accounting students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross-country evidence

“…This view is reflected in recent studies’ findings in relation to the pandemic ( O'Connell et al, 2022 , Tharapos, 2021 ). For example, Tharapos (2021) argued that the higher educational system is developmental in nature, and the urgent adoption of DL as a quick response to the pandemic’s lockdown may have caused a gap between DL and TL course-content dimensions.…”

“…However, the internet has shortcomings that might adversely affect the DL experience, such as slow internet speed or a weak signal caused by a heavy load on the network, leading to technical problems both for faculty and students (Apostolou et al, 2021). Furthermore, DL requires technology skills and knowledge, both among instructors and students, in order to navigate the communication software (e.g., Microsoft Teams) and to resolve any technical issues arising during live sessions ( Fogarty, 2020 , O'Connell et al, 2022 ).…”

“… Ali et al (2020) clearly highlighted this kind of struggle, arguing that “… we discovered this [lack of requisite skills required for effective student engagement in online learning] for ourselves as we struggled with the transition from face to face classroom delivery to online teaching during the recent COVID-19 disruptions” (p. 267). Moreover, prior studies in relation to the pandemic have found that students’ face-to-face social interaction with their instructors and peers is a critical factor, the lack of which negatively affects their learning habits and environments ( Ali et al, 2020 , Beatson et al, 2021 , O'Connell et al, 2022 ). Nevertheless, Sangster et al (2020) found that most faculty in their study considered that more questions were asked during online classes compared to face-to-face TL, and that it was easy to allocate effective and sufficient online office hours.…”

“…During the pandemic, prior studies have found that the adoption of DL as emergency remote teaching is a good opportunity to gain professional and technical skills through the students’ self-development capabilities ( McGuigan, 2021 ; O’Connell et al, 2022 ). Specifically, McGuigan (2021) considered that the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdown restrictions led to students becoming more self-independent, thus increasing their awareness concerning self-development capabilities in order to create their own learning environment to gain professional skills.…”

“…Specifically, McGuigan (2021) considered that the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdown restrictions led to students becoming more self-independent, thus increasing their awareness concerning self-development capabilities in order to create their own learning environment to gain professional skills. This may lead to positive expectations for enhanced professional decision-making and problem-solving skills in post-COVID-19 educational settings and among post-COVID-19 accounting graduates ( O’Connell et al, 2022 ).…”