Corporate Governance in Higher Education: A Case Study of Higher Educational Institutes in Abu Dhabi

The study investigated the governance practices in the higher educational Institutes (HEIs) in the
Abu Dhabi. The objectives of the study were - to explore the principal characteristics of good
governance; to understand whether the in Abu Dhabi higher educational Institutes observed good
governance practices; and to analyse to what extent good governance is associated with quality of
education in Abu Dhabi HEIs. Two hypotheses were formulated in the study and to test these a
quantitative survey method has been adopted.
A self-constructed questionnaire was developed on the google forms and it was distributed through
mail to the sample population. The population of the study comprised of 32 staff members working
with higher educational Institutes of Abu Dhabi.
The results revealed that the good governance is strongly and positively correlated to the quality
of education within the context of Abu Dhabi higher educational Institutes. Furthermore, the
results also revealed that the governance practices within these Institutes were unable to meet the
standards of good governance. Among the eight characteristics those were tested, only two
elements – transparency and equity are the two characteristics in which these Institutes have
reached the expected standards. However, the other six characteristics (accountability, autonomy,
stakeholder participation, compliance, efficiency, and strategic vision) weren’t adopted as per the
expectation of the participants. Thus, to achieve good governance it was recommended that the
Institutes adopt leadership training, involving stakeholders in board and raising awareness to make
policy changes.