oh valencia. sweet valencia.

This would be an interesting conference to go to...

SEMINAR ON STRATEGIC CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
“Governing Universities in the Knowledge Society”

27-28th, April, 2006

Organized by the Generalitat Valenciana and the Institutional Management
Higher Education (IMHE) Programme, OECD.

Venue: Conference room, Botanical Garden, University of Valencia,
Valencia

Language: English and Spanish (with simultaneous translation)

AIM: Knowledge and the global society are generating profound change in the context of universities which are faced the world over with the need to change their internal structures and, in the case of public institutions, their relationships with public authorities.

On one hand, universities are calling for a fundamentally new type of arrangement
with society, whereby they are responsible and accountable for their programmes, staff and resources, while public authorities focus on the strategic direction of the system as a whole. In an open, competitive and ever-changing environment, autonomy is a pre-condition for universities to be able to respond to society’s changing needs and to take full responsibility for their responses. The majority of universities feel that national regulations do not currently allow them to implement the changes required for the future.

On the other hand, empowering universities effectively to make and implement
decisions requires leadership teams with sufficient authority and management capacity, considerable time spent in the office and wide-ranging experience. New ways of university governance are needed to develop effective autonomy and to run universities efficiently in the current changing environment. Success in implementing new ways of university governance will probably be linked to the success of institutional outputs in the new knowledge society.