Higher education institutions as creators and co-creators of S&T policies

Abstract

The knowledge-based society and economy can operate effectively when supported by an appropriate technical infrastructure (involving IT facilities to generate and disseminate knowledge) and mental infrastructure associated with institutions that generate knowledge and engage in continuous education. Examples include institutions of higher education. In order to respond to new challenges, such institutions should be managed more effectively, have a more flexible structure and focus on applied knowledge generation while abandoning some of their academic ethos. An essential precondition for internal transformations within HE institutions is the streamlining of their internal rules of operation. Research and teaching are the main resources of those institutions. Administration of those resources can and should be improved. This can be achieved by redefining the contractual relations between schools and their employees, i.e. by stating precisely what the school ’buys’ from an employee and what it offers in exchange. The second condition enabling transformations is the right government policy towards schools of higher education. Some of the existing policy instruments can be improved.