Abstract:

The public administration and the Portuguese public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have undergone profound changes in recent decades, triggered by aspects such as the massification of higher education and the need to adapt to new societal challenges, among others. Following an international trend, the Public Administration (PA) and the HEIs began to tend towards an approximation to the private sector, through the introduction of private management models and practices. HEIs began "imitating" business organisations, under the influence of the New Public Management (NGP) current, materialised in 2007 through the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES). This legal framework brought greater autonomy to HEIs, and opened the possibility for them to assume the model of public foundation of private law. In this context, HEIs became more complex organizations and their actors saw their roles and forms of participation in the organization's life altered. Such changes have led to an increase in the number and in the specialisation of technical and administrative/non-teaching staff within HEIs, as well as to changes in the roles and identities of these professionals. And if before the boundaries between academics and non-academics were well defined, this is no longer so clear. Within the technical and administrative staff, we find professionals who are characterised by high autonomy in the performance of their functions, who are not only limited to performing the functions listed in their job description. Within this group, we find and highlight the function of the Internal Advisory in Education, which is a subject still little studied. These are employees who work very close to management, in the HEIs, performing supporting functions and providing support for decision-making, contributing with studies, opinions and decision proposals, preparing and influencing decision-making by the legitimate decision-makers. As our objective is to understand how internal advisors influence decision-making in the governance and management of Portuguese public HEIs, we will follow a research methodology of qualitative nature. Through multiple case studies, we intend to analyse three HEIs - two Universities, one of them with a foundational model, and one Polytechnic Institute - in order to understand how the same phenomenon occurs in three different contexts. To this end, we will interview stakeholders from the central level of governance and management, rectors, president, administrators and advisors, and also actors from the middle management, faculty and organic unit (OU) directors and advisors. As found in the literature, the influence of these professionals is growing and determining in the decision making by policy makers and that it is possible to maximize the contribution of these professionals by generating synergies, cooperation and mediation between knowledge and powers.

Keywords:

Internal Advisory Services, Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions, Technical and Administrative Staff, Governance, Management.