|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NOTE: Users previewing using MS-Office 2003 should install this converter (Click Here to Download)
HUMBOLDT-KOLLEG
ON TRANSPARENCY TOOLS IN HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT, ABUJA, NIGERIA,
12TH
– 12TH NOVEMBER, 2011
The Workshop is a combination of a Humboldt-Kolleg (networking meeting of participating Humboldt fellows) and the intermediary meeting of the DAAD-DIES International Deans’ Course (Class of 2011, Ghana-Nigeria-Cameroun Group).
Transparency is an important concept in modern higher education management that is relevant not only for individual institutions but also for the higher education system as a whole. In many environments, it is common practice for institutions to regularly make a case for increased (state or proprietor) funding or to introduce student-related levies.
Regrettably, initiatives on transparency and accountability to stakeholders are only infrequently evolved voluntarily by operators of higher education institutions as necessary and integral parts of management. While the need for greater autonomy of universities is recognised, stakeholder accountability must be seen as the logical counterpart to autonomy. Transparency is the basis for accountability.
Transparency underpins every effort at gauging the success or otherwise of an institution’s overall management strategy as well as of specific strategies oriented towards teaching, research, community outreach, and so on. It is central to cost calculations for a range of budgeting purposes. At the system level, transparency is essential for comparability and competition among institutions.
Engaging with transparency in higher education management necessarily requires an understanding of relevant theoretical concepts and tools. The slant of the Abuja Humboldt-Kolleg will be towards transparency in the internal environment of institutions rather than at the system level, even though the need for regional institutionalisation of transparency mechanisms will be kept in view.
The Kolleg will seek to emphasize management concepts and tools that make performance and strategy transparent to relevant stakeholder groups. To what extent can strategic management tools such as Portfolio Analysis, Balanced Scorecard, Negotiated Performance Contracts, Assessment of Student Teaching, Tracer Studies, Annual Reports, among others, be used in maintaining oversight of training programs, personnel and research? What is to be done or can be done with information generated from applying these tools? As performance transparency may not be welcomed by all stakeholder groups, how should objections and resistance be responded to?
The Kolleg will, on the one hand, present existing transparency-related tools and practices in higher education management and, on the other, discuss the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of deploying these tools in the participants’ contexts. At the end of each of the four main workshops of the Conference, participants should have acquired hands-on practice on how to use the relevant tools. The format of presentations is that of a workshop.
The Humboldt-Kolleg Conference will also provide the framework for the Intermediary Meeting of the International Deans’ Course participants (2011/2012) from Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria will be invited. These participants will have the opportunity to continue work on their Project Action Plan, together with experts to be invited.
Professor Bassey E. Antia
On behalf of organisers