Universities, like several other professional service organisations such as hospitals or legal firms, have traditionally separated policy decision-making related to their core functions from the administration of these functions. For universities, decisions about teaching and research were undertaken by academics while the implementation of such decisions was done by administrators, often described as ‘non-academics’. Career paths, working practices, professional values and beliefs were very different in these two parallel arenas. This dual structure existed in most universities until at least the mid-twentieth century and is still recognisably present in many parts of the world. Today the sharp divide between the academic and administrative domains has become much more fluid as universities have become larger and more complex organisations (Middlehurst 2010). At the same time, the nature of both academic and administrative domains has changed as both these professions have become more specialised and sophisticated. In both cases, ‘management’ has grown in importance and prominence within academic and administrative discourses and activities. The drivers of change come from many directions: changes in technology, changes in the costs and funding of teaching and research, political and social expectations of universities’ role in society, competition from new educational providers (CVCP/UUK 2000) as well as the changing dynamics of disciplines and knowledge creation activities (Gibbson et al. 1994) in a global context. Many governments have instituted ‘reform’ agendas in their higher education systems in order to ensure that universities and related institutions are ‘fit for the future’; this is also the case in the European region where the European Commission has issued two recent communiqués on the ‘modernisation of universities’ (European Commission 2006, 2011)... Lesen Sie den gesamten Artikel von Robin Middlehurst in der kommenden Ausgabe WISSENSCHAFTSMANAGEMENT 4/12 mit dem Schwerpunkt "Leadership". Bild: Rainer Sturm/pixelio