Trosolwyg
Main interests relate to the management of strategic change in higher education employing a contextualist perspective. Attention is focused on the management of change at three levels over time and the interactions between them: macro (Government), meso (Funding and other agencies) and micro (Higher Education Institutions). Particular interest is taken in the ways in which positive adaptations are made by HE institutions to external challenges and the contributions made by organisational structures and processes and institutional cultures (including leadership, management styles, modes of governance and power relations) to survival and competitive success.
Recently Completed Major Research Project
An extended study, funded in the initial stages by an ESRC grant, on the impact of changes in government policy on the development of higher education in Wales since 1976, was undertaken in two parts and completed in April 2009 with the publication on this website of Government Policy and the Development of Public Sector Higher Education in Wales: The WAB Years 1982-92.
The first part of the project was completed in November 2006 with the publication, also on this website, of University Management in an Era of Strategic Change: The Cardiff Experience 1976-98. The two publications have been prepared as companion volumes aimed at filling an important gap in our understanding of the development of higher education in Wales on both sides of the binary line during a period of major strategic change, largely driven by the Conservative Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. A contextualist perspective is employed in both with attention for the university sector directed at the $acirc; Cardiff experience$acirc; during the period 1976-98. The central dramatic event defining this experience was the financial crisis at University College Cardiff in 1986-87, a cause celebre which caused reverberations throughout the sector in Wales and the UK and contributed to the Government$acirc; s resolve to secure much stronger control over the funding and strategic development of universities. The immediate and long-term circumstances leading up to the crisis and its resolution by a enforced merger with the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology are explored and analysed. The study also seeks to explain, using the same analytical framework, how rapid recovery and repositioning was achieved following the merger.
The focus of attention for the public sector is on the role played by the Wales Advisory Body for Local Government Higher Education (WAB) during the formative years 1982-92. This was a crucial period for the development of the sector and its major HE institutions, preparing the ground for their eventual incorporation in 1992, and making possible, following the removal of the binary line, the creation of HEFCW, which assumed responsibility for the funding of both the university and public sector institutions in 1993.
Ymchwil
Mae prif ddiddordebau yn ymwneud â rheoli newid strategol mewn addysg uwch gan gyflogi persbectif cyd-destunol. Mae sylw yn canolbwyntio ar reoli newid ar dair lefel dros amser a'r rhyngweithio rhyngddynt: macro (Llywodraeth), meso (Cyllid ac asiantaethau eraill) a micro (Sefydliadau Addysg Uwch).
Cymerir diddordeb arbennig yn y ffyrdd y mae sefydliadau AU yn gwneud addasiadau cadarnhaol i heriau allanol a'r cyfraniadau a wneir gan strwythurau a phrosesau sefydliadol a diwylliannau sefydliadol (gan gynnwys arweinyddiaeth, dulliau rheoli, dulliau llywodraethu a chysylltiadau pŵer) i oroesi a llwyddiant cystadleuol.
Prosiect ymchwil mawr a gwblhawyd yn ddiweddar
Cynhaliwyd astudiaeth estynedig, a ariannwyd yn y camau cychwynnol gan grant ESRC, ar effaith newidiadau ym mholisi'r llywodraeth ar ddatblygu addysg uwch yng Nghymru ers 1976, mewn dwy ran a'i chwblhau ym mis Ebrill 2009 gyda chyhoeddi polisi'r Llywodraeth ar y wefan hon a Datblygu Addysg Uwch y Sector Cyhoeddus yng Nghymru: Y Blynyddoedd 1982-92.
Cwblhawyd rhan gyntaf y prosiect ym mis Tachwedd 2006 gyda chyhoeddi Rheoli Prifysgol mewn Cyfnod o Newid Strategol: Profiad Caerdydd 1976-98.
Paratowyd y ddau gyhoeddiad fel cyfrolau cydymaith gyda'r nod o lenwi bwlch pwysig yn ein dealltwriaeth o ddatblygiad addysg uwch yng Nghymru ar ddwy ochr y llinell ddeuaidd yn ystod cyfnod o newid strategol mawr, wedi'u gyrru i raddau helaeth gan lywodraethau Ceidwadol Margaret Thatcher a John Major.
Cyflogir safbwynt cyd-destunol yn y ddau gyda sylw i'r sector prifysgolion a gyfeiriwyd at 'brofiad Caerdydd' yn ystod y cyfnod 1976-98. Y digwyddiad dramatig canolog a ddiffiniodd y profiad hwn oedd yr argyfwng ariannol yng Ngholeg Prifysgol Caerdydd ym 1986-87, selebre achos a achosodd atgyfeiriannau ledled y sector yng Nghymru a'r DU ac a gyfrannodd at benderfyniad y Llywodraeth i sicrhau rheolaeth gryfach o lawer dros ariannu a datblygu strategol prifysgolion.
Mae'r amgylchiadau uniongyrchol a hirdymor sy'n arwain at yr argyfwng a'i benderfyniad drwy uno gorfodol â Sefydliad Gwyddoniaeth a Thechnoleg Prifysgol Cymru yn cael eu harchwilio a'u dadansoddi. Mae'r astudiaeth hefyd yn ceisio esbonio, gan ddefnyddio'r un fframwaith dadansoddol, sut y cyflawnwyd adferiad ac ailleoli cyflym yn dilyn yr uno.
Mae'r sylw i'r sector cyhoeddus yn canolbwyntio ar rôl Corff Cynghori Cymru ar gyfer Addysg Uwch Llywodraeth Leol (WAB) yn ystod y blynyddoedd ffurfiannol 1982-92.
Roedd hwn yn gyfnod hanfodol ar gyfer datblygu'r sector a'i sefydliadau addysg uwch mawr, gan baratoi'r tir ar gyfer eu hymgorffori yn y pen draw ym 1992, a gwneud yn bosibl, yn dilyn dileu'r llinell ddeuaidd, greu CCAUC, a gymerodd y cyfrifoldeb am ariannu'r prifysgolion a sefydliadau'r sector cyhoeddus ym 1993.