Prof. Dr. Barış Uslu

In the rapidly changing world, naturally, new university models are emerging around various factors or their combination including technological advancements, shifting workforce demands, affordability concerns, and changing student expectations. While Henry Mintzberg identified universities as 'Professional Bureaucracy' in 1979 and underlined Standardization of skills and Vertical/Horizontal decentralization, he defined entrepreneurial and innovative organizations as 'Adhocracy' by indicating Mutual adjustment and Selective decentralization. Nonetheless, Mintzberg informed us about possible hybridized organizational models for the future. In the same vein, combining two approaches above, it is possible to name modern universities as 'Professional Adhocracy' type institutions. Among five essential components in organizations (Operating Core, Middle Line, Technostructure, Support Staff, and Strategic Apex), no doubt, Technostructure is the largely expanding element within the 'Professional Adhocracy' approach to universities. For example, Online Learning became hot topic in higher education, particularly after Covid-19 pandemic. Digital platforms, remote learning tools, and AI nowadays have made education more accessible and flexible and reduced the need for traditional campus-universities. For the expectation of students towards more personalized learning design, AI and data analytics also enable universities to offer more tailored learning experiences, adjusting to individual student needs and learning styles. Then, rising tuition fees and student debt in most of the world are pushing students toward more cost-effective education models, mainly around online universities, or micro-programs, even Lifelong Learning certificate modules. All these initiatives bring various techno-oriented management structures in each university; yet their roles should be critically considered in terms of teaching design and knowledge production.

Barış Uslu is Professor at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Türkiye. With a national scholarship, Uslu visited the University of Sydney, Australia during his doctoral training. He received his PhD degree in Educational Administration in 2015. After his PhD, as the Turkish team leader, Prof. Uslu joined an internationally comparative project titled "Academic Profession in the Knowledge-Based Society" in which more than 20 countries participated. He then achieved his tenure in Higher Education Studies from the Interuniversity Council of Türkiye in 2019. While Prof. Uslu has published articles, chapters and conference papers about different aspects of higher education, he received various international and national project funds and prizes to research organizational management in universities, comparative higher education policies, and digitalization in higher education. Recently, as an International Senior Fellow at the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, Essen, Germany, Prof. Uslu started to study AI integration in higher education institutions.