Governance and evaluation as steering instruments: University implementation and expectations

The perspective of the introduction of compulsory evaluation in the Italian HE system is fostering the possibility to change deeply the governance asset of the single universities that are facing the question about how to cope with the incoming presence of evaluation in allocation of resources and performance assessment. At the same time the governance led by strong collegial patterns cannot be overcome easily, nor it could be done without risks for the community cohesion. We believe that the governance of a HEI although formally shaped in the same way, can be transformed in terms of effective power according to the university structural patterns (first of all their dimension), and to perceived external threats and opportunities. With this paper upon two empirical cases of universities – a large one and a medium size university – we are focusing on how the HEIs are changing their governance in order to let enter the evaluation as a steering tool whose vision varies between different cases. The main topics are about: a) how, why, and to what extent the evaluation is entering an university b) how and by whom the steer in terms of governance ought to be pursued; c) which new balances are emerging from the change of governance among the levels, especially in terms of power (winners and losers).