The Conference built upon the outcomes of the International Seminar on Higher Education, now known as the Novi Sad Initiative, which was launched two years ago to address questions of institutional reform and regional cooperation.
The Universities of Zagreb, Novi Sad and Vienna joined forces to organise this important conference. It has been strongly supported by the following international organisations, national higher education authorities and non-governmental associations: the Council of Europe, Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, European University Association, UNESCO-CEPES, European Students Union, Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, Irish Higher Education Authority, Turkish Council of Higher Education, Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Serbian Ministry of Education and Secretariat for Education and Culture Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Educational Reform Initiative for South Eastern Europe, and SPARK.
An in-depth debate on the challenges in the region concluded with an acknowledgement that although progress has been made in the past two years, concrete action now needs to be accelerated, as Ladislav Novak, the main driving force of the Initiative, explained:
“We need to create an environment where real reforms can occur. Universities need to have the autonomy to respond to changing societal needs, and have to be accountable to society for what they do. This means we have to reconsider the relationship of governments and universities, and to think about different buffer bodies that might be helpful. There are also specific issues that need to be addressed in our region, particularly in the way universities are organised and managed, including students involvement and the way how students have to be represented through democratic procedures. As far as regional cooperation is concerned, there is no doubt that many topics lend themselves to such efforts. For example, developing academic and student mobility, creating an attractive and competitive research environment, improving quality, involving and supporting students properly are just a few areas where we could benefit from closer cooperation. The important thing is that in Dubrovnik we agreed on a broad range of concrete actions that we hope will gather widespread support, and which we can also use to measure our progress at future events.”
As indicated on the conference website (/link/2496.html), it is expected to be the first in a series of bi-annual conferences.

Information provided by David Croisier, Ladislav Novak

Article published in eJournal fall/winter 2007.

The keynote speach from Michael Richter (SPARK) can be downloaded from http://www.spark-online.org/images/stories/key_note_spark_richter_2.pdf. He outlines that
universities need to be enabled to play crucial roles in reconstruction and development. He elaborates on how universities could play this role and address the preconditions to successfully perform this role:
- rebuilding human and professional capacities
- promoting good governance
- promoting the protection of human rights and the creation of critical citizens
- becoming an attractive employer

The Dubrovnik Conference on higher education reform (that was strongly supported by EUA) has published ambitious recommendations aiming to speed up institutional reform and regional cooperation in South East Europe within the context of the European Higher Education Area.

The text of recommendations emphasises that it is now high time to implement, rather than talk about, concrete priorities. Among the most significant actions, they call for support from governments, institutions and international partner organisations:

• To organise summer schools and other educational activities for university and ministry administrators to professionalise the management of higher education;
• To establish a Regional Research Fund for early stage researchers using a competitive funding model as an incentive in the creation of attractive regional centres of excellence;
• To encourage mobility for students, researchers and professors through providing incentives for cooperation, joint programmes, and academic networking;
• To ensure that every national and regional inter-university meeting includes students as members of delegations;
• To rethink the role of governments in providing incentives for higher education reform, integrating universities into single legal entities and encouraging trust in institutions.

text of recommendation under: http://www.eua.be/fileadmin/user_upload/files/newsletter/The_Dubrovnik_Recommendations.pdf