Driving professional excellence
HUMANE, the Heads of University Management & Administration Network in Europe, is primarily a European association whose aims are to build global networks of professionals, to foster innovation in higher education services and to drive professional excellence in higher education management. The network welcomes universities from outside Europe to broaden contributions.
The network aims to transform higher education into a dynamic sector open to the world, through the transformation of professional services with contemporary approaches for dynamic service delivery and what is needed in the academic enterprise of today. HUMANE helps universities thrive in the global world by empowering their senior professional service leaders and managers to strengthen professional practices and organisational development.
Our strategy is centred around connecting, developing, and empowering professionals in higher education, be it those in senior generalist positions (Head/Director of Administration, Registrar, Secretary-General, Chancellor, or Chief Operating Officer) or in more specialised ones (HR, finances, IT, estates, internationalisation, quality assurance, knowledge transfer and innovation).
To do so we offer a wide portfolio of professional development programmes and networking events that focus on contemporary trends in higher education and ways to address the challenges leaders and managers currently experience. We help leaders and managers of professional services find new solutions and deliver effectively for the university of the future by building capabilities in their institutions.
Membership of HUMANE provides a cost-effective means to:
- expand professional networks both locally and internationally,
- develop the skills and expertise that you need to succeed,
- stay up-to-date on key issues and trends,
- have the opportunity to work with HE leaders who have first-hand experience of the ever-changing challenges within HE.
For further information go to the Join HUMANE page, see our page “benefits of membership” and read our “vision, mission and strategy” page. you can also contact us via email. The current HUMANE Newsletter (Autumn 2025) can be downloaded here and our 2026 programme of events can be viewed here.
HUMANE Winter School
Leading change in strategy and policy – Internationalisation
March 22-27, 2026
Hosted by the UPF Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona (ES)
The HUMANE Winter School aims to develop the leadership potential of talented Senior Managers by making them fully aware of:
- The concepts and practices of strategic management in a European context;
- The importance of integrating academic matters, finances, human resources, governance, leadership and communication strategy in the elaboration of university strategy.
The Winter School focuses on leadership skills and the “big picture” of management (how to identify and implement necessary changes). Throughout the week participants work on a case resolution on the internationalisation strategy of a University. The context of university life and the developing scene across Europe provide a unifying thread – this is not just “yet another” management course.
The Winter School is designed for talented fast-rising managers of administration or services, some of who might become heads of administration. The typical candidate will be someone who has the potential to become an influential senior manager and/or head of administration in the future but who at this moment may not be a deputy or senior colleague. Candidates may be an expert or a specialist with the potential to broaden responsibility and move in due course to a senior management position. Applicants are nominated by their own head of administration, their dean or equivalent in their organisation. They are selected by a HUMANE panel with extensive experience of leadership management development programmes.
Applications are now open for the 2026 Winter School. Apply here. The application deadline is 28 November 2025.
HUMANE Seminar
Navigating cybersecurity challenges in higher education – Safeguarding universities
February 5-6, 2026
Hosted Ghent University
Universities are a prime target for cyber criminals, from individual opportunists looking for financial gains, to highly organised groups seeking to disrupt IT systems. With their international reach in education and research universities are targeted for the amounts of data they hold in their digital infrastructures and for their large storage capabilities.
Security failures can have potentially devastating effects and costly consequences on universities, leading to massive disruptions to teaching and learning and to the entire organisation, to students and staff; it can lead to massive financial, reputational and personal damages.
For all these reasons, universities need sophisticated governance, robust policies and practices to safeguard against hostile interferences, including internal and external audits, technology (systems, services and infrastructure). They must have an organisational culture focusing on institutional resilience, to support risk awareness. The senior leadership needs to be highly committed to security issues, and staff systematically made trained.
The HUMANE seminar will explore all these issues, to share expertise on threat intelligence and good practice approaches to enhance institutional preparedness for cybersecurity. We will discuss national/international regulatory frameworks and requirements, and in Europe the impact of the EU NIS2 directive (Network and Information Security Directive 2). All EU Member States must enact the directive in national legislation, for compliance by all organisations, including universities. The aim is to increase overall cybersecurity posture, improve incident reporting and crisis management among others.
Save the date! Registration is open here.
Residential School Alumni Webinar
Delivering efficient professional services under tight budgets
December 4, 2025, 13:00-14:00 CET
This webinar is exclusively for Residential School Alumni
Under the overarching theme “Remodelling professional services in universities” the webinar will focus on how universities can deliver professional services in new ways to support education, research and outreach.
Decreasing public funding in many European HE systems and the fast growth of Artificial Intelligence are posing major challenges to universities, but they also offer new opportunities to reconfigurate professional services, with more limited budgets.
New models can be designed to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, streamlining processes to avoid potential service duplication and reduce costs, while using human-centred Artificial Intelligence for routine tasks and releasing staff for more qualitative work. All require a change of mindset and major staff upskilling and reskilling for leaders and managers to take initiatives to design new solutions rather than these being imposed on them through financial cuts.
Registration for the December webinar is open here and more information is available here plus the speakers can be seen here.
HUMANE Leadership Programme
Preparing for Strategic Professional Leadership
May 17-21, 2026
Hosted by the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) (IT)
HUMANE is launching a new programme in 2026 “Preparing for Strategic Professional Leadership” designed to cultivate the leadership skills of experienced professional service senior leaders (e.g. directors of HR, finances, estates, IT, etc.) who aspire to move into more senior positions.
The programme will foster creative, out-of-the-box thinking by immersing participants in a dynamic learning environment that will stretch their thinking beyond their everyday workplace and national contexts. It will enhance their ability to connect and respond to complex issues found in more senior roles. By learning from their European and international peers, participants will develop broader perspectives and enhance their leadership capabilities.
The programme will help participants to:
- Understand the key global trends that impact higher education: shifts in global economic powers; financial sustainability; global research and knowledge security; climate change; changing student demographics; the rise of technology, industry 5.0 and Artificial Intelligence; the future workforce (including the health and wellbeing evolution)
- Gain insights into strategic professional service leadership, understanding what it takes to become a well-rounded and impactful senior leader capable of addressing challenges in dynamic environments and driving transformative change in their universities
- Explore the breadth and depth of senior professional service leadership roles, while reflecting on personal leadership effectiveness, developing advanced leadership skills and the ability to lead specialist teams
- Expand their international professional networks in the higher education sector
The programme is available to view here. Applications are now open here. The application deadline is 15 January 2026.
HUMANE Summer School
Change Management and Transformation in Universities
September 6-11, 2026
Hosted by the Central European University (CEU), Vienna (AT)
The Summer School focuses on achieving sustainable change in relation to universities’ operations. Participants use professional services transformation programme case studies and other material to explore global best practice in this area.
The programme content focuses on the wide variety of contrasting approaches to meeting the challenge of effecting policy and strategy change. Topics such as globalisation, strategic change management, strategic financial management, human resource management and strategic communication are covered over the course of the week.
We are looking for applications from fast rising middle to senior managers, keen to learn more about the art and science of leading and managing large-scale changes in operations and support services. Applicants must be open to non-hierarchical, flexible, agile management approaches, including approaches deployed in other industry sectors. Typically, they will be able to demonstrate the potential to move beyond their current roles irrespective of whether they are already working in operations management, or come from a specialist technical, or policy background. Applicants are nominated by their own head of administration, their dean or equivalent in their organisation. They are selected by a HUMANE panel with extensive experience of leadership management development programmes.
You can sign up to be kept informed about the 2026 Summer School edition here.
University governance, leadership and management in higher education
Major transformations have occurred in the governance of public higher education institutions in the last decades. Universities often have been granted more autonomy from state control to set their own strategic agendas, decide on their governance and manage their own affairs. Yet at the same time new forms of quality control and performance contracts have emerged under which the state is demanding accountability from its universities.
HUMANE carried out a Survey to gain a better understanding of the profound changes in the position of Head of Administration, understood as a generic term to refer to directors of administration, general directors of services (as in France), registrars or clerks (as in the UK), vice-presidents for administrative affairs, kanzlers (as in Germany).