An analysis of academic staff members perceptions of the problem solving processes, general administrative problems and the academic rights and freedoms at Turkish public universities

Pages Since the emergence of contemporary higher education in Turkey, governance models, institutional autonomy, academic freedom and the administrative problems of the academe have been discussed widely. From time to time these issues have been the dividing force both between governments and academic intellectuals, faculty and administration. Academic staff members working at the universities have never had a proportionate weight in shaping the so-called reform acts introduced successively for the reorganization of higher education institutions in Turkey. As the developmental phase has revealed during the Republican Period, political unrest and democratic inconveniences, experienced nationwide, have driven academics out of the inner circles of decision making processes at all levels. This background gave rise to the research problems. This study attempts to gauge the academics' perceptions of the administrative problems and the problem solving processes at the public universities through analyses of first hand data gathered from 1 1 public universities. Therefore, this study aims at investigating three major issues of university governance, namely; academics' perceptions of the operation of problem-solving mechanisms; academics' attitudes toward the commonly voiced administrative problems, and their perceptions of the academic rights and freedoms available at the public universities.The objectives have been achieved via administering a questionnaire for an extensive coverage of the targeted problem areas.The 761 subjects were academic teaching staff members at all levels of the hierarchical pyramid and the administrative posts. Throughout the study, statistically significant difference was sought between the academics of differing titles and administrative post and their perceptions of the problems posed in the survey. The ultimate goal of the whole study would be to obtain concrete data whether academics, in general, have a consensus concerning the administrative problems they face. Furthermore, the subjects' were asked to choose a solution, among three possible alternatives, which they thought to be the best remedy for each given problem. Analysis of the data revealed that academic staff members, regardless of their titles and administrative responsibilities, have agreed both on the administrative problems and their solutions suggested in the survey. Another significant finding has been the subjects' perception of their academic administrators behaviour that they were not sensitive in the identification and solution of the administrative problems. The means and ways that the academic administrators employed in their executions were not found to be participative. As for the academic freedoms and rights, there was not much remarkable dissatisfaction, however, the results indicated the existence of some inconveniences among the academics, as regards to the lack of freedom in joining legal associations and unions. The overall awareness of the academic freedoms and rights seemed to be relatively low among the subjects who actually joined the survey.