EUniAM international conference

The university autonomy plays a central role in the achievement of universities’ missions in the 21st century. Nowadays, university autonomy consists of four types: organizational autonomy, that pertains to setting university structures and statutes, making contracts, electing decision-making bodies and persons; financial autonomy that focuses inter alia on acquiring and allocating funding, deciding on tuition fees, and accumulating surplus; staffing autonomy, that deals with responsibility for recruitment, salaries and promotions; and academic autonomy, that is about deciding on degree supply, curriculum and methods of teaching, deciding on areas, scope, aims and methods of research.

The theme of this conference is to (re)define the concept of university autonomy by exploring the relationships between the above four types of autonomy and five interfaces that characterize external and internal points of interactions between modern universities and their key stakeholders. These interfaces are: government – university; university management – university staff; university staff – students; university – businesses; and university – internationalization. By cross-tabulating the types of university autonomy and university interfaces we arrive at a holistic view of institutional autonomy of universities.

Under the conference theme, we hope to encourage academics, policy makers and practitioners to become more engaged with the process of exploring and enhancing our understanding of the institutional autonomy of higher-education institutions. We invite papers and case studies that will encompass all aspects of the defined institutional autonomy. The call for papers may be accessed here.

The conference has one special session and eight tracks . The tracks focus, among other things, on how all types of university autonomy (organizational, financial, staffing and academic) effect various aspects of university functioning.

Special session. Are Governance Structures Fit for Purpose, Effective and Accountable?

Presentations from the conference, special session, can be downloaded here.

Track 1. Evolution of University Autonomy in the European Union: Current Challenges and Future Directions

Chair: Prof. Marin Marinov, University of Gloucestershire

Presentations from the conference, track 1, can be downloaded here.

Track 2. Current Challenges and Future Directions in University Internationalization

Chair: Romeo V. Turcan, Aalborg University

Presentations from the conference, track 2, can be downloaded here.

Track 3. Current Issues and Challenges in Staffing Autonomy

Chair: Daniela Pojar, State University of Balti

Presentations from the conference, track 3, can be downloaded here.

Track 4. The Role of Students in University Governance and Quality Assurance

Chair: Victor Kordas, Royal Institute of Technology

Presentations from the conference, track 4, can be downloaded here.

Track 5. Governing and Managing a Modern University

Chair: Larisa Bugaian, Technical University of Moldova

Presentations from the conference, track 5, can be downloaded here.

Track 6. Ensuring Academic Autonomy: Where does Research Funding Come from?

Chair: Birgitte Gregersen, Aalborg University

Presentations from the conference, track 6, can be downloaded here.

Track 7. University and the Society: Collaboration with Business and beyond

Chair: Prof. Olav J. Sørensen, Aalborg University

Presentations from the conference, track 7, can be downloaded here.

Track 8. Quality Issues of Higher Education and University Autonomy

Chair: Prof. Birute Mikulskiene, Mykolas Romeris University

Presentations from the conference, track 8, can be downloaded here.

The conference proceedings may be accessed here.

Dr. John Reilly

Dr. John Reilly is a Higher Education consultant with wide European and International experience in Higher Education. Currently Dr. Reilly is a member of the UK Bologna Experts team, having full understanding of the Bologna process and the European Commission modernization agenda.

Dr. Reilly has considerable experience in the field of governance and management in Higher Education. As Director of Academic Administration at the University of Kent, he was a member of the senior management team with wide responsibilities. His extensive knowledge of the UK, Europe and countries in many other regions – he has worked in East Africa and New Zealand and undertaken study visits in Australia, Hong Kong and more recently in a number of African countries – has given him a multi-cultural, transnational understanding of the issues and challenges arising in the field of University autonomy and governance and management.

Dr. Reilly was awarded the MBE for services to Higher Education and the ERASMUS programme in the U.K. New Year Honours 2002. He was appointed as Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in December 2004. In July 2007 he was awarded the degree of DCL by the University of Kent. He has  been elected as an Honorary member of the EAIE and the UK association HEURO (Higher Education European Officers)

Dr. Reilly studied at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and London (School of Oriental and African Studies.

Dr. Erik de Graaff

Dr. Erik de Graaff is trained as psychologist and holds a PhD in social sciences. He has been working with Problem Based learning (PBL) in Maastricht from 1979 till 1980. In 1994 he was appointed as associate professor in the field of educational innovation at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology.

Dr. de Graaff has been a visiting professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia in 1995 and a guest professor at Aalborg University in Denmark. The collaboration with Aalborg University led to an appointment as full professor at the department of Development and Planning in 2011.

Dr. de Graaff is recognized as an international expert on PBL. He contributed to the promotion of knowledge and understanding of higher engineering education with numerous publications and through participation in professional organizations like SEFI, IFEES and ALE.

He has published over 200 articles and papers and he has presented more than 70 keynotes and invited lectures on various topics related to PBL in higher education, like Working with PBL, Management of change, Assessment and evaluation, Methods of applied research and Collaboration between university and industry. Since January 2008 he is Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Engineering Education.

The conference program may be accessed here.

The conference proceedings may be accessed here.

The power point presentations may be accessed here.