Salzburg Seminar – Universities Project - Milika Dhamo

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT
From the outset of the Universities Project, an additional component of site visits was
planned that would encourage the higher education reform process, and complement
the discussions at symposia in Salzburg. This new initiative, called the Visiting Advisors
Program (VAP), began in 1998 through generous funding from the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation. The VAP sends teams of North American and West and East European
university presidents and higher education experts, who volunteer their time and
expertise, to conduct site visits at selected participating universities and assist them in
the process of institutional self-assessment and change. The overall goal of the program
is to provide practical advice and recommendations to institutions of higher education,
which are coping with the challenges presented by administering the modern university.
From the beginning, the decision was made to involve both advisors and host
institutions in the VAP from among those who had participated in Universities Project
symposia in Salzburg. In September 1998, a letter was mailed to all North American and
West European Universities Project alumni, inviting them to volunteer to travel as a
team member to a requesting institution in Central or East
Europe, the Russian Federation, or the Newly Independent
States. At the same time, a letter was sent to rectors and
other senior-level representatives of higher education
institutions who had participated in Universities Project
symposia, inviting them to submit a request for a consultant
visit. The goal was for the consultant team to spend three to
five days at the host institution to provide advice and
recommendations on specific institutional concerns
identified in advance by the requesting university. The
response from both potential advisors and host institutions
was immediate and enthusiastic. To date, more than 100
senior-level educational experts have confirmed their
willingness to participate in the Visiting Advisors Program.
Among them are current and former presidents and
chancellors of universities and colleges, and high-level university educators and
administrators from North America, and West and East Europe. More than thirty
universities in Central and East Europe and the Russian Federation have indicated their
interest in hosting a consultant team. Between December 1998 and December 2000,
twenty-three teams, each consisting of three to five members, traveled to universities in
Central and East Europe and the Russian Federation.
The Visiting Advisors Program
of the Universities Project
is made possible by a generous grant from the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
VISITING
ADVISORS
PROGRAM
Petras Barsauskas and Ramutis
Bansevicius (Kaunas University
of Technology, Lithuania), Ed
Jakubauskas (University of
Colorado at Denver, USA),
Jacob Scheele (Inspectorate of
Education, Netherlands), VAP
Coordinator Marty Gecek,
Arunas Lukosevicius (Kaunas
University of Technology,
Lithuania), and Ossi Lindqvist
(University of Kuopio, Finland)
during the VAP visit to Kaunas
University of Technology,
Lithuania, in November 2000.
Thanks to the generosity and vision of the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Universities Project has
been able to add this valuable site-visit component,
which complements Project discussions in Salzburg.
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