HUMANE
Heads
of University Management & Administration Network in Europe
SEMINAR
WARSAW UNIVERSITY
Friday 23rd
to Saturday 24th September 2005
Role of the EU in Management of Change
Poland and Polish Universities in Europe
1. Jerzy Pieszczurykow,
Chancellor (PL)
The
main goal of the presentation is to summarize briefly the basic data concerning
Poland as a new state in the European Union and those relating to the Polish
system of Higher Education after 1989, as well as to focus on new tasks and
challenges that will be undertaken by Warsaw University authorities.
The 1989, recognized as the
end of communist system and the beginning of democratic changes, is an
important year for Poland. However, the changes that happened in higher education
sector during the past 15 years are not widely known.
Warsaw University, the
largest Polish HE institution and the best one (in 2004), has a special role to
play. Facts and figures on Warsaw University, its budget, organizational
structure, IT management tools show, how difficult is to manage such a large
institution that undergoes a continuous process of changing. Therefore an
evaluation of current situation, particularly with regard to the new Act on
Higher Education being in force from the 1st of September, will be
done. This Act is of great importance for implementation of Bologna Process in
Polish HEIs.
Afterwards Mrs. Jolanta
Urbanikowa, Rector’s Plenipotentiary for Bologna Process and ECTS will present
the problem of implementation of Bologna Process at Warsaw University.
2. Jolanta
Urbanikowa, Rectors Plenipotentiary for the Bologna Process and ECTS, Warsaw
University (PL)
The stock-taking
exercise at Warsaw University, following the pattern of those performed on the European
level before the Berlin and Bergen Meeting of Ministers of Education proved
that although the Bologna process has significantly accelerated there is still
a lot to do. Initial bottom-up initiatives, scarce top-down university
regulations not supported by nationwide legislation, add to a very vivid debate
in the academic circles: stakeholders being divided, representing dramatically
divergent attitudes, from lack of approval and passive resistance to
uncritical enthusiasm. GATS,
globalization, local and international competition, demographic factors etc are
perceived like a threat and a challenge. However there is no doubt about the need of further internationalization of
the University. How to overcome the barriers and take best possible advantage
of the European Higher Education Area this is the question.
One year after accession – first effects and perspectives
Alojzy
Nowak, Dean of the Faculty of Management,
Warsaw University (PL)
I. Main reasons for Poland to join the European Union (economic,
political, social);
II.Poland in the EU - Experiences of the First Year of Membership -
selected aspects (economical, financial, institutional and political);
III. The influance of the enlargement of the European Union on
enterpreneurship and management of the new member states. The case od Polish Business Schools.
The Council of Europe: policy in the area of higher
education
Hanna
Machińska, Warsaw
University, Director of the Information
office of the Council of Europe (PL)
I.
The main direction of the Council of Europe in the area of higher
education and research focuses on the problems concerning:
-
access to higher education,
-
European studies for democratic citizenship,
-
research missions of member states,
-
students participation in governance in higher education,
-
lifelong learning for equity and social cohesion,
-
legislative reform program etc.
II. The following
areas of the Council of Europe activity have special importance:
1. CoE contribution (Bologna
Process) aiming to establish European higher education area in particular:
-
recognition of qualifications,
-
contribution to this Process in countries that are not parties to
Bologna Process.
2. Creation of an
access to higher education – the project of the CoE as a part of the CoE
regular work.
3. Presentation of
recommendation of the CoE to the member states on access to higher education.
4. European Studies
for democratic citizenship aiming to redefine European studies as university
discipline and field of research, presentation of the recommendation.
III.
This shows clearly that the CoE covers a lot of fundamental problems
concerning proper functioning of all Universities in Europe in order to achieve
greater unity between 46 member states.
IV.
The presentation will focus on a legislative activity of the CoE in the
area of:
The strategic position on University services in The
European Higher Education Area
Rafael Zorrilla, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ES)
In the Bergen Declaration (May, 2005)
universities are seen as playing a crucial part in strengthening the three
poles of the knowledge triangle: education, research and innovation, and a key
role to achieving Europe’s competitiveness.
The European Commission, in its
communication: Mobilising the brainpower of Europe (April, 2005), set improving
governance as a decisive goal, from two perspectives: the state strategy for
the Higher Education System, and the way in which universities will modernise
their strategies.
Heads of Administration are aware of
the demands of these modernising strategies, for the changing university
structure, for their role, and for university services.
Teaching programs will need to be more
flexible in their offers, and adapt to life-long learning activities. In addition they are requesting the support
of services such as the Library which can play an important role in the new
learning systems.
Research projects will need an
effective cost-based system, combined with more flexible ways of supporting
staff.
A new structure, in which education and
research are decentralised, will mean a stronger institution, with a clear
global strategy. This will only be sustained if information and data, marketing
studies, quality measures, relationships with stakeholders...are managed in a
more professional way and linked to academic leadership.
Some examples will show the ways in
which Universidad Carlos III is beginning to cope with these challenges.
How will
the Bachelor-Master system effect University Management? Roger Broo,
Ĺbo Akademi University (FI)
Implementation of
the Bologna process will open up for more movement and competition. Students
will after their Bachelor exam be able to change their postgarduate studies to
other study programs and other universities much easier and more flexibly than
before. Students will prefer universities with high quality and interesting
study programs. Young people are not tied to their home city and to instruction
in their mother tongue like in former decades. These changes will strengthen
the competition between universities for good students and form a challenge for
university management.
In the framework of the
Bologna Process, the Bachelor-Master reform is supposed to favour an
harmonization of education curricula in order to permit students to move
more easily within the
European area. What was expected by the designers of the reform was
consequently more competition between the different universities within each
country and between the different countries so as to become more attractive for
the students.
After a two years
implementation period, the reform achieved its academic goals : it resulted in
the most important higher education reform since a century, applied even in
some academic fields reform reluctant for decades. Curricula in Sciences,
Humanities, Economy and Social Sciences have been deeply reshaped while the
reshaping process is going on in other fields like medicine and Health
sciences.
But this major academic
change didn’t provoke more competition between universities, but rather an
organization crisis.
In most of Universities which
have seriously implemented the reform, the process revealed a gap between the
current structures, and the functional needs of the new education framework.
Both the faculty organization and the work division between university central
services appeared clearly unsuited to the new stakes.
That is driving to a new
approach in building internal services more adapted to users basic needs and
legal and institutional internal reshaping, with frequently more centralization
and a cut in the number of faculties.
The process revealed also
problems at regional or local level, around the work-division between the
different universities, both in education and research. Frequently, human,
technical and financial means concerning the same educational and scientific
are scattered between two, three or more institutions settled in the same city.
No one of them have the critical mass to be effective. So, a lot of projects of
closing and sometimes merging are nowadays in discussion. That’s the French
paradox : the Bologna process didn’t drive to more competition but rather to
more cooperation. But may be the paradox is only a detour and cooperation not
an alternative but a step to a more competitive approach at the global level.
The development in past and future of HUMANE
Hans van Dam, HUMANE Network Manager (NL)
The central discussion topic at the
Warsaw Seminar will be the effect on universities of the accession of Central
and Eastern European countries to the EU.
Part of this discussion will be the development of HUMANE itself, and
the value for the universities in the new EU-countries, and the countries
waiting for membership.
Another reason is the presence of 5 Russian partners in the
RAUMA-project, which is a TEMPUS project with the aim to support the
development of a network for senior administrators in Russian universities
using HUMANE as model.
The presentation will deal with the topics “why should there be a
network”, the early history (founders, regional meetings, TNP-projects), the
transition to an informal association, the instruments (discussion list,
Bulletin, Website, seminars, Round Table), the finance, the daughters (with
ESMU, such as Winter School, HEE), the new and extra activities, the transition
to a formal association (to Belgian law), and now the transition to a new phase
with the founders leaving the Boards.
After the seminar the presentation will be followed up by a new
presentation at the website useful to members who want to tell more about
HUMANE to colleagues.