Salzburg Seminar – Universities Project - Milika Dhamo

1999
In the third full year of programming, the Project’s focus shifted from assessing
change at universities to considering the effects of globalization on higher education
in the context of the five main themes of the Universities Project.
Plenary Convocation (January): senior-level representatives of universities and higher
education organizations from North America, West Europe, CEE, and the Russian
Federation gathered for discussions on the following:
• Globalization and Higher Education, A Keynote Overview
• Globalization and National and State Systems
• Globalization and the Academic Disciplines
• Globalization and the Local University
In addition to the plenary presentations, participants at the Plenary Convocation
were divided into working groups to discuss the following topics:
• Globalizing the Curriculum
• The University and Global Civil Society Issues
• The Clash of Cultures
• New Information Technologies: Source of Fear or Hope
CEE Symposia (April and October): These two symposia convened
senior-level representatives of CEE universities with peers from West
Europe and North America. The content mirrored that of the Plenary
Convocation and focused on issues concerning the effects of
globalization on higher education. Discussions at both symposia were
of an extremely high caliber and reflected the timeliness and
relevance of the globalization theme.
Russian Symposium (July): This symposium brought together delegations from thirteen
Russian universities with senior-level university representatives from North America
and West Europe and was entitled “The Responsive and Innovative Russian University:
Universities and their Role in National and Regional Development.” The goal was to
help assist Russian universities in developing their ability to be innovative in the face of
extreme resource shortages, and to assist them in assuming a leading role in the
economic and social development of their regions in the context of the greater
decentralization taking place in Russian higher education.
Future Leaders Symposium, A New Initiative (November): One of the stated goals of
the Universities Project is to assist in the development of future university leaders. To
this end, the Project departed from the format of previous symposia and experimented
with a new format and thematic focus for the final symposium of 1999.
Rather than a gathering of peers at the senior level, the November symposium
featured a junior-level group of Fellows who worked closely with an invited group of
senior university administrators. Selected rectors and presidents of universities who had
participated in prior symposia were requested to nominate junior faculty members
whom they considered to be potential leaders in higher education in the coming years.
Fellows and Faculty were from the Russian Federation, Europe (East, Central, and
West), and North America.
The November symposium also represented a new direction for the Universities
Project, and the Seminar as a whole, in that the symposium report was created for
posting on the Seminar’s web page, rather than the previous practice of printing the
report and having it available only as a hard-copy. Symposium reports are posted at
www.salzburgseminar.org/up.
Universities Project Russian
Program Coordinator
Helene Kamensky with
Boris Reznik (Far Eastern
State University, Russian
Federation) at the
April 2000 symposium.
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