Places Of Excellence: How Master’s Programs Build Reputability

319 Pages·2021·18.328 MB·English

by  Martin Tröndle, Johanna Schindler

Edition WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
Martin Tröndle · Johanna Schindler
Places of
Excellence
How Master’s Programs Build
Reputability
¨
Edition WURTH Chair of Cultural
Production
SeriesEditor
MartinTröndle,Friedrichshafen,Germany
Die Reihe untersucht das breite Themenfeld, das sich rund um die Produktion
und Rezeption von Kunst und Kultur aufspannt: Besucherforschung, inszenatori-
sche Fragen, Fragestellungen zu Kulturorganisationen und der Kulturverwaltung,
sowie kulturpolitische Analysen. Wesentlich an den interdisziplinären Monogra-
phien und Herausgeberschaften der Edition ist, dass sie forschungsbasiert sind.
Die Bände richten sich an interessierte Praktiker, Wissenschaftler und Studie-
rende im Feld von Kulturpolitik und Kulturmanagement sowie den angewandten
Kulturwissenschaften.
The book series deals with various topics concerning the production and recep-
tion of the arts and culture: audience and visitor studies; curatorial aspects in
museum, theater and concert studies; topics concerning art administration and
cultural organizations; and the legal, political, and discursive aspects that form
cultural policies. Central to the book series are an interdisciplinary approach,
criticalanalyses,andaprofoundresearchorientation.
Prof.Dr.MartinTröndle
WÜRTHChairofCulturalProduction
ZeppelinUniversität
Fallenbrunnnen3
88045Friedrichshafen
Germany
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/16383
·
Martin Tröndle Johanna Schindler
Places of Excellence
How Master’s Programs Build
Reputability
MartinTröndle JohannaSchindler
DepartmentofCommunicationand DepartmentofCommunicationand
Culture Culture
ZeppelinUniversity ZeppelinUniversity
Friedrichshafen,Germany Friedrichshafen,Germany
ISSN2662-334X ISSN2662-3358 (electronic)
EditionWÜRTHChairofCulturalProduction
ISBN978-3-658-33282-2 ISBN978-3-658-33283-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33283-9
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Acknowledgments
We would like to extend our utmost gratitude to all the professors and stu-
dents as well as the universities that participated in this study. Only through
their friendly cooperation was this book made possible.
Our thanks also goes to Jaclyn Arndt for her careful copyediting of the texts
and to Nico Stockmann for his thoughtful design of this volume.
We were enabled to conduct explorative field research in Canada, the US, and
the UK thanks to the generous financial support of the Stifterverband and the
Baden-Württemberg Foundation.
We are also grateful to the WÜRTH Foundation, which has been supporting
and enabling the teaching and research at the WÜRTH Chair of Cultural
Production at Zeppelin University for many years.
—Prof. Dr. Martin Tröndle and Dr. Johanna Schindler
WÜRTH Chair of Cultural Production
Preface
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that we are experiencing globally
as this publication goes to print, the only thing we can say with certainty is
that the future is highly speculative—except for the fact that it is clear the
coming years will be marked by the strongest economic crisis since World
War II. In terms of global economics, both private industry as well as the
public sector are facing a tremendous challenge, and clearly this situation will
also have an impact on the funding structures of universities. Within only
a few weeks of the crisis, face-to-face learning and teaching came to a halt,
the international exchange of students and academics stopped for the most
part, in-person interaction on some campuses was put entirely on pause, and
online teaching has been implemented globally. The current modus operandi
everywhere seems to be one of assessing the situation day by day and week
by week, adapting to regulations and finding new forms of life, sociality, and
working together on a continuous basis. Sadly, some governments are using
the pandemic to strengthen their (illiberal) regimes, impacting academic life
and the freedom of speech in yet another way.
In view of these developments, it seems to be outdated or even aud a-
cious to ask how excellence or innovation in higher education can be fostered.
Still, in a world changing this fast, being daily confronted with disruptions
and ambiguities, one needs to ask what and how students should learn to be
able to deal with situations like these. Starting on a very fundamental level:
What kinds of working environments do students need to be prepared for?
Which theoretical and practical competences do students need to understand
VIII Martin Tröndle, Johanna Schindler
and work in this world, in which contexts and people are interdependent
and social, political, and economic injustices as well ecological problems are
glaringly present? And, finally, how can universities provide these skills and
offer an open and inspiring learning environment while putting themselves
on financially and operationally stable grounds?
At least in Germany, where the researchers of this book are based, a
massive debate started to form in the 2010s on the question of learning and
teaching environments, and both national and regional governments are now
investing hundreds of millions of euros into fostering innovation in higher
education.1 This volume is the outcome of one of many research projects that
received such funding in order to develop excellence in higher education; spe-
cifically through the kind support of the Stifterverband, a German association
for the promotion of innovation in the sciences and humanities,2 we were
given the opportunity to pursue our research question: How do excellence
and reputation in higher education emerge?
As a starting point to answering this question, we first take a critical
look at the key terms forming the debate around “excellent higher educa-
tion,” namely, “excellence,” “ranking,” and “reputation.” This is followed by
a brief description of the project’s methodological setup in chapter 2. The six
core chapters of this book, which together constitute chapter 3, offer insights
into various strategies aimed at creating very specific learning and teaching
environments through which universities are able to build an international
reputation. This part of the book lays out our ethnographic field experiences
and outlines six analyses of the institutions and degree programs that were
examined in the field. These descriptions encompass the results of the inter-
views that were carried out with students and professors as well as documen-
tation photographs and field notes taken during the research stay. Afterward,
a short excursus is presented to complement these qualitative analyses with
an interpretation of the quantitative data we gathered. Finally, a cross-case
analysis, in chapter 4 points to a metastructure of drivers that we found to be
important for the formation of excellence and reputation in higher education
institutions. A discussion of the use and general applicability of these con-
cludes the book.
Preface IX
Due to our own academic experience, we believe that the study will be
insightful for current and future program directors and department heads as
well as professors who are interested in different ways of strategically mana-
ging their university’s and department’s or chair’s resources to develop a finan-
cially viable, tailor-made teaching environment that gains international atten-
tion. Our results also serve prospective master’s students by allowing them to
take a step back from university rankings and to ground their decisions about
which degree programs they will pursue in a more nuanced analysis of the
information available. In addition, current and prospective students might
become aware of aspects of their programs that they are able to influence and
change, in order to benefit from and contribute to the environment of which
they are a part during their studies.

Notes
1 The Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (Foundation for Innovation in Higher Edu-
cation Teaching) is intended to promote the exchange and networking of relevant actors
within postsecondary education and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge for successful
teaching and of new results and findings. To provide continuous incentive to design tea ching
innovations, the foundation financially supports the development of innovative study and
teaching formats. See the webpage “Innovation in der Hochschullehre” on the website of
the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung at www.bmbf.de/de/innovation-in-der-
hochschullehre-9166.html.
2 In addition to the support of Stifterverband, this research project was funded by the
Baden-Württemberg Stiftung through its Exzellenz in der Lehre (Excellence in Higher Educa-
tion) fellowship program.
Contents
Acknowledgments ......................................................................V
Preface ................................................................................... VII
1 Excellence and reputation in higher education: What is it about? ......1
2 Research setting and methods ...................................................17
3 Notes from the field ................................................................29
3.1 University of Warwick: Master of Arts in International
Cultural Policy and Management ..........................................29
3.2 Goldsmiths, University of London: Masters offered by
the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship ...........63
3.3 School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Master of Arts
in Arts Administration and Policy .......................................103
3.4 Ohio State University: Master of Arts in Arts Policy
and Administration ..........................................................139
3.5 New York University: Master of Arts in Visual Arts
Administration and Master of Arts in Performing
Arts Administration ..........................................................173
3.6 HEC Montréal: Master of Management in
International Arts Management ..........................................211
3.7 Excursus: Quantitative results from the questionnaires ............241