Governance of higher education – the role of proximity in teaching quality

The starting point of this article is the relation between teaching quality and expectations by different governance actors in higher education. Managing a department in a public university is, to a large extent, about the coordination of governance actors, involving government authorities as well as the university and the faculty. Internally, the departmental management has to act strategically to achieve this coordination, especially in relation to teachers who expect resource allocation to ensure teaching quality, expressed in terms of academic requirements. To explore this, the concept of proximity is introduced. The study points out the importance of organizing teaching activities to create proximity, as well as that the context and conditions for creating proximity are important for teaching quality, thus achieving coordination with governance actors. © 2016 European Higher Education Society.