NetKoop

NetKoop

Success factors for networks for university development: governance models and social practice of interdisciplinary co-operation (NetKoop) - sub-project: Intra-organisational educational governance in networks

Project objective:

The NetKoop joint project used a multi-perspective research approach to investigate the conditions for the success of university alliances that aim to develop quality in teaching and learning. The sub-project "Intraorganisational Educational Governance in Networks" dealt with factors that promote and hinder quality development within various network constellations.

Short description:

Activities for teaching-related quality development are increasingly taking place in university alliances. These university alliances, which are usually created through third-party funding, are expected to contribute to quality development and have a greater impact through co-operation and exchange. However, the factors that contribute to and hinder the success of such alliances have not yet been sufficiently scientifically clarified.

The NetKoop joint project therefore analysed the conditions for successful cooperation in alliances. Further information on the joint project can be found here:

https://www.soz.ovgu.de/Hochschulforschung/Forschungsprojekte/NetKoop.html

In the sub-study at the University of Hamburg, successful processes and mechanisms as well as challenges were reconstructed from the perspective of collaborative employees with different functions in a qualitative analysis.

Empirically, three different phases could be distinguished: In phase 1 after the start of the alliance, the challenges to formation are particularly high. In phase 2, in which the actual collaborative work takes place, challenges arise from interferences between areas of tension that are typical for universities. Phase 3 is primarily focussed on the transfer of innovative pilot projects and teaching and learning practices to larger areas of undergraduate teaching. Particularly precarious in this phase is the stabilisation and continuation after the end of funding.

One of the main findings is that the ways in which the networks studied dealt with the challenges of the three phases could not be generalised. Rather, what they had in common was the development and establishment of expertise networks according to the principle of "communities of practice", i.e. the establishment of a network community. In the cases analysed, the respective network developed the educational subjects, adapted them to the specific needs of the partner universities, worked to establish them in teaching and learning practice and was committed to ensuring that the necessary adjustments to formal and administrative teaching structures were addressed at their partner universities.

In very different ways, the respective collaborative communities were also able to pursue their collaborative concerns over several funding periods. In all cases, community building was explicitly promoted and supported by accompanying actors, measures and activities, particularly of an informal nature.

On the basis of the surveys, differentiated factors and described processes of success and the necessary framework conditions that enable the partner universities of a network to develop the quality of higher education will be available at the end of NetKoop

Publications:

• Ruge, J. & Merkt, M. (im Druck). Organisationales Lernen durch lehrbezogene Ver-bundprojekte: Gelingensbedingungen und Herausforderungen aus hochschuldidakti-scher Sicht. die hochschullehre.
• Ruge, J. & Merkt, M. (im Druck). Das Potential Community-basierter Ansätze als hochschuldidaktische Praxis zur Förderung organisationalen Lernens in Hochschulen. In S. Gandt, T. Schmohl, B. Zinger & C. Zitzmann (Hrsg.). Disruptionen in der Hoch-schulbildung.
• Ruge, J. & Merkt, M. (im Druck). Veränderungsprozesse und Rahmenbedingungen lehrbezogener Hochschulverbünde. In M. Merkt; P. Pasternack & P. Pohlenz (Hrsg.). Verbünde deutscher Hochschulen zur Lehrentwicklung - Analy-se von Rahmenbedingungen und Gelingensfaktoren. Verlag Dr. Kovač
• M. Merkt; P. Pasternack & P. Pohlenz (Hrsg.). Verbünde deutscher Hochschulen zur Lehrentwicklung - Analyse von Rahmenbedingungen und Gelingensfaktoren. Ver-lag Dr. Kovač

Duration	01.10.2020 – 30.11.2023
Sponsopship	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), FKZ 16PH20007C