Abstract:

Higher education has entered years ago a changing phase, where universities of all shapes and sizes are navigating more diverse markets, more demanding students, a growing competition from peer organizations or from new industries and more scarce financial resources. The increasing sense of urgency of preparation for the future is not only encouraging college deans and HE leaders to rethink their development strategies, but also reminding them to root their projects in a change-focused management approach that will prepare the organizations for meeting transformation in the uncertain years to come. The paper aims at reviewing the factors that contribute to higher education transformation and provide a self-assessment guide to universities which want to operate in more connected ways enabling stronger performance management and change competencies.
The article will examine closely the available research upon higher education transformation, as a concept, process and dynamics as well as through the lenses of innovation in higher education ecosystem: how is it perceived by managers and policy makers, what are the economic KPIs and industry trends behind, summing up authors' contribution to shaping an assessment matrix under which universities are able to comprehend their own readiness, enable change management and adaptive business services bridging the gap between policies and industry and in the end serving their own mandate and students better.

Keywords:

Education policies, higher education, evaluation in higher education, readiness assessment, universities transformation, innovation and transformation, innovate