Participation in governance in Turkish higher education system: Examination of resolution processes in university senates

This study aims to examine implementations of participation, which is one of the elements of governance, in higher education. In this context, whether stakeholder engagement is achieved in resolution processes of senates, which are the highest decision-making bodies of universities, is examined in terms of internal stakeholder opinions. This study is a descriptive study based on qualitative research approach. The study group of the research consists of the participants selected from Artvin Çoruh University, Karadeniz Technical University and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University by using maximum sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling types and non-random sampling methods. Within the scope of the study, a semi-structured interview form that includes the stages of involvement (informing, engagement and active participation) determined by OECD (Gramberger, 2001) was developed and face-to-face interviews were performed with the participants. Direct expressions of the participants were included in the categories and themes created based on the obtained data. The findings obtained from the participants' views on resolution process of senates indicate that academic and administrative staff and students who are internal stakeholders stated that there are deficiencies in all stages of involvement, while the participants who are in charge of management reported that there are not any deficiencies in the stages of involvement. The study results show that there are some problems related to internal stakeholder engagement. Key words: Governance, Participation, Higher Education, Senate, Stakeholder