In search of excellence in higher education

Center for International Higher Education Studies, Corvinus University of Budapest

Abstract

In 2017 Ulm University organized the 1st Danube Conference for leaders, policy makers and researchers of higher education from the Danube countries. The Corvinus University of Budapest carried on this initiative by organizing the 2nd Danube Conference in cooperation with Ulm University and with the generous support of Péter Horváth Foundation. Higher education systems and institutions have been under the constant pressure of performance and efficiency since their considerable expansion in the 1990s. This pressure increased in the last decades as a result of the financial crisis, the spreading of international and national rankings, and the growing competition for international students. The main focus of the conference was to identify and present good management and policy practices, which could be interesting for other countries and institutions. The cultural proximity of the Danube countries provides an opportunity for the successful adaptation of such good practices. Therefore, the conference was intended to provide publicity for these practices. However, the book is not only the summary of the conference presentations, but an individual volume of seventeen completed papers authored by thirty-two scholars from four Central and Eastern Europe countries as well. Although papers were written on various topics, there is a common notion in all of them: they wish to explore what makes higher education institutions (or systems) excellent. The first chapter discusses various challenges leaders and policy-makers face on the system and organizational level from quality assurance to business-university collaborations, from early-career researchers to supervising bodies. The second chapter focuses on the connection between teaching and excellence. This relationship is based on two different points of view. Teaching is one of the main tasks of higher education institutions which aims to increase excellence, that is, develop individuals as well as society as a whole. However, teaching also contributes to the excellence of the institution. The chapter includes papers about teaching methods, program developments, quality assurance, and rankings. The third chapter leaves the national context and discovers the international dimensions of excellence. Studies are looking for the answer to the question of how internationalization can influence the excellence of the higher education institutions, of the students, and how the higher education institutions can handle the difficulties stemming from students with different nationality and background. Most papers focus on real practices and good practices. Even if some of the practices are less successful than others, we hope there is a possibility to learn from each of them. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Péter Horváth for his generous support, which made possible to organize the conference and to compile and publish this volume.