Heads of University Management & Administration Network in Europe

HUMANE Study Visit to Australia

Strategic transformations of Australian universities: Practice, successes and challenges

Hosted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU), September 24-28, 2023

An ambitious programme

Registrations are now open for this unique professional development opportunity for HUMANE members & their senior staff.

Australia’s universities are among the most innovative in the world. They are often praised for their global engagement strategies and practice. How have Australian universities shaped solid strategies, transformed and redesigned their operational services, physical and digital infrastructures to support major changes?

Programme outline

Our HUMANE programme comprises study visits to three very different types of institutions in Sydney. It focused on strategic transformations and delivery in the context of global engagement.

The programme will involve hearing from senior speakers from each institution; it will be highly interactive to facilitate genuine knowledge and experience exchange and networking.

There will be a seminar with HUMANE’s counterpart, the Deputy Vice-Chancellors Corporate Group (under Universities Australia), which will provide additional opportunities for good practice exchange, discussions on key trends in higher education, big challenges and future developments, and a platform for international networking.

The latest version of the programme is available: here and the featured speakers are: here

Programme Leaders

Nadine Burquel, Director General HUMANE (BE) and Alex Pellacani, Executive Committee Member HUMANE; Director General, University of Trento (IT)

Why attend?

With a population of 25 million people Australia is a relatively small country yet it has 43 universities with very high large revenues and a strong global academic reputation. The pandemic hit the country’s higher education and universities very hard, yet through Australian’s pioneering spirit and determination, recovery has been impressive leading to new growth at sector level and in universities.

What has driven this impressive performance? How has it been led and managed? What can European institutions learn from the Australian experience, including about the post-pandemic recovery. What are some of the ‘next big things’ that Australian institutions are currently working on. These are just some of the questions that will be covered during the programme.