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 (Spring 2025) can be downloaded: here
HUMANE Summer School, Berlin
Change Management and Transformation in Universities
September 14-19, 2025
Hosted by the Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
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.
Applications for the 2025 Summer School are now open – apply here.
The deadline for applications is May 15.
HUMANE Annual Conference
Performance Unleashed: Co-creating High Value for Stakeholders
June 4-6, 2025
Hosted in Helsinki jointly by Aalto University, the University of Helsinki and the University of the Arts Helsinki (FI)
The 2025 HUMANE Annual Conference will explore strategies and practices to enhance institutional performance through close engagement with internal and external stakeholders. In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, higher education institutions are facing many challenges to balance the needs of students, faculty, staff, their communities and funders. The conference will bring together thought leaders, practitioners, and innovators to share insights and actionable solutions aimed at fostering collaboration and driving excellence in higher education.
The three HUMANE member universities of Helsinki (Aalto University, the University of Helsinki and the University of the Arts Helsinki) will be our hosts. As a bursting place for innovation, the smart city of Helsinki is the ideal place to address our conference theme. Finland ranks seventh in the world for its innovation capabilities, thanks to its unique approach to entrepreneurship. It is also the world’s most sustainable destination. It is leading in technology developments, seen as critical to support current challenges: the environmental crisis, the development of well-being due to an aging population (and increasing problems of mental health), the erosion of democracy, increasing competition and the challenges to current economic foundations. Finnish universities play a key role in these developments.
Save the date and register here to secure your place.
HUMANE Seminar
Redefining Talent and HR strategies: “A must” to drive strategic changes in universities
October 16-17, 2025
Hosted by the University of Turin (IT)
Recruiting, retaining and replacing highly educated talents and specialist staff has become a major challenge in universities, in a context of financial constraints, geopolitical instability and shifting societal expectations.
Change management, digital skills and people leadership are some of the key skills to support strategic delivery, at a time when digitalisation and Artifical Intelligence are moving at a fast pace, requiring profound organisational and service transformations. To deal with daily challenges while embracing new opportunities for organisational growth, universities need specialised skills and expertise to deliver services efficiently: risk management, (cyber) security, artifical intelligence, stakeholder engagement and EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion), to name only a few.
Professional service leaders are prioritising investments to build the right capabilities, expertise and skill development. The focus is on improved staff processes and experiences to enhance the employee value proposition, to attract and retain staff. Succession and development plans are key to take a sustainable long term view on talents.
The programme is available here. Save the date and register here to secure your place.
HUMANE Study Visit Southeast Asia
Driving Success: Strategic Innovation through transformative leadership in Southeast Asian Universities
November 9-14, 2025
Hosted by The University of Nottingham Malaysia; The St.Gallen Institute of Management in Asia (SGI) in Singapore
The HUMANE Study Visit is a unique opportunity for senior university leaders and managers to understand what makes Southeast Asia a strong powerhouse of innovation and economic success, and how universities in the region are playing a key role in driving this success.
ASEAN is the world’s fifth-largest economy only just behind the US, China, Japan, and Germany. With a growing population of close to 700 million inhabitants there is strong appetite for higher education and a growing research production with leading areas of research excellence. Malaysia and Singapore are transforming their higher education system, building significant capacity for higher education and research excellence, and by doing so contributing to major societal and economic growth.
The visit to the campuses of several universities will also be the opportunity to get a sense of the university life, innovative teaching approaches, student engagement and the startup ecosystem.
The Study Visit will among others focus on the following themes:
- Transformative university leadership to support economic and societal growth
- Strategic positioning in the region
- Support to the national talent strategies: skilling, upskilling and reskilling for the labour market
- Delivering research and innovation for economic and societal growth
- Delivering transnational education for capacity building, innovation and economic growth
- Sustaining global and local partnerships
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in high level conversations with those who are leading large scale educational developments, seeing first-hand what it means in practice and getting a sense of the university life, innovative teaching approaches, student engagement and the local startup ecosystem.
The programme is available here. In the meantime save the dates and register here.
HUMANE Winter School, Barcelona
Leading change in strategy and policy – Internationalisation
2026 Dates coming soon
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.
You can sign up to be kept informed about the 2026 Winter 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).