Under Pressure: Higher Education Institutions Coping With Multiple Challenges

A core position in the knowledge economy policies has been ascribed to higher education. This has enhanced the complexity of the environment in which higher education institutions operate. These deal with a wide range of pressures stemming from the State, the corporate world, the society at large and political interests, let alone those arising from the constituencies of higher education institutions (academics, students and non-academics). Institutions are expected to cope with these pressures by developing strategies involving quality management, performance and assessment, innovation, while reconfiguring the relationships between research, teaching and learning.

The core business of higher education is being reshaped, challenging institutions’ internal life to strategically respond to the reconfiguration of their role and missions. Topics such as governance and management, strategies and strategizing, budget control, performance and assessment, quality management, local and regional innovation come to the fore front. Under Pressure: Higher Education Institutions Coping with Multiple Challenges addresses these topics by convening approaches to the understanding of the interactions between policy drivers and institutional practices in governance, funding, performance indicators, regional innovation, strategy and strategizing, quality and management, and professionals.

Pedro N. Teixeira is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (Portugal) and Director of CIPES (Center for Research in Higher Education Policies). He is also Special Adviser to the President of Portugal on Higher Education and Science. His main research interests are on the Economics of Education and the History of Economics. He has published several journal articles in higher education and economics journals and has edited several collective volumes.

Amélia Veiga is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal, and researcher at the Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE) and at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES). Her academic interests focus on education policy analysis, namely on the Bologna process and higher education governance in areas such as internationalisation, globalisation and quality assurance. She has been involved in national and international projects. She has written book chapters and coedited books and published articles on European integration and higher education governance in key journals such as Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly.

Maria J. Rosa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism at the University of Aveiro. She is also a senior researcher at the Center for Research in Higher Education Policies - CIPES. Her main research topic is quality management at both higher education systems and institutions levels. She has coordinated and participated in research projects in this area and has published her work in higher education and quality management journals and books.She is a member of CHER and of EAIR.

António M. Magalhães is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto where he acts as Head of the Department of Education Sciences. He is also Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES) and member of its Directive Board. His field of expertise lies on education policy analysis with a focus on higher education policies and also researches on methods of policy analysis. He has coordinated and participated in research projects in these areas and has been publishing in these areas both in Portugal and abroad.