Higher Education Management and Policy for Practitioners

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Course Description

The course provides an introduction to fundamental issues and topics in the contemporary higher education sector, with a special focus on how university leadership and administrators should address these in their domestic context. 

Higher education is seen as a particularly contested area of public policy: it can foster social integration and economic development, but it also reproduces inequalities. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, the course offers a systematic overview of the key actors, structures and dynamics in the field of higher education. It combines a theoretical level of analysis with relevant case studies, in order to shed light on the practical world of higher education management and policy. Areas covered in the course include policies related to governance, access, funding, and practices related to accreditation, quality assurance, and performance measurement. 

The course will equip participants with knowledge and analytical skills that can help them better understand the issues and challenges of present-day higher education systems and how governmental and institutional policies seek to address those. It will also enhance participants’ knowledge of the diversity of institutions in the OSUN network and how the identity of member institutions is reflected in their governance and management structures.  

Learning outcomes

After the successful completion of the course, participants will be able to: 

  • recognize the main actors and challenges in contemporary higher education settings; 
  • analyze and explain the dynamics shaping current higher education in various contexts; 
  • understand and critically assess how specific higher education policies are designed and implemented; and 
  • participate in work aiming at developing alternative solutions to specific problems or situations facing higher education. 

Course Information

This course is addressed to staff and faculty with managerial and leadership responsibilities at OSUN institutions. The successful completion of the course will grant participants 1 US credit (2 ECTS)- upon request- as part of the OSUN Professional Development Program for University Administrators.

Instructor: Dr. Pușa Năstase and Dr. Norbert Sabic

Dates: November 15 to December 13, 2022

Registration deadline: Nov. 5, 2022 (LATE APPLICATIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED)

Schedule: twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) from 14.30 until 16.45 (Vienna time)

How to Apply

Please submit your application here.

For queries and more information, please reach out to: Dr. Pusa Nastase, Lead of the Global Professional Development Program at the Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research- nastasep@ceu.edu.

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