Boards of Trustees, Systems

[Page 166]The university system board of trustees, the ultimate decision-making entity charged with maintaining accountability within the university, has been one of the important issues in the governance of universities worldwide. Higher education systems across the globe are under pressure to transform and improve in response to a variety of economic, political, social, cultural, demographic, and environmental forces. These pressures are both global and domestic in origin. The boards entrusted to address such pressures assume myriad shapes, sizes, and titles (university councils, administrative councils, university senates, university assemblies, university syndicates, university courts, and boards of trustees). Regardless of title and with rare exception, all institutions of higher education have some sort of university system board of trustees. These system boards are responsible for clarifying the ...