Past Program

This convocation begins the third year of the Salzburg Seminar’s Universities Project. During the years 1997 and 1998, a total of nine sessions were held, involving over two hundred participants representing universities, government, and the independent sector in thirty countries of North America, East and West Europe, Russia, and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

Last year’s overarching theme was "Higher Education Reform: An Assessment." In the course of 1998, sessions were built around the university reform process currently underway in universities and university systems. The symposia have been unified in examining this process through the prism of the following five Universities Project topics:

1. University management and finance;
2. Academic structure and governance within the university;
3. Meeting the needs of students, and the role of students in institutional affairs;
4. Technology in higher education;
5. The role of the university in the emerging civil society.

In 1999, while continuing to discuss these topics, the Universities Project will shift its attention to the process of globalization and its effects on institutions. This theme emerges from a growing perception in the Universities Project’s discussions that globalization will touch all institutions in society, including universities. The Project’s goal in 1999 will be to provide a context and definitional framework for thinking about these issues to those engaged in the university reform process.