“UNAM” – Project launched at University of Alicante
Alicante. The University of Alicante hosted the kick-off meeting that took place in the frame of the Tempus project “UNAM – Promoting the modernization and strengthening of institutional and financial autonomy in Southern Neighbouring Area higher education institutions”, from December 20th-21st, 2010.
UNAM – Promoting the modernization and strengthening of institutional and financial autonomy in Southern Neighbouring Area higher education institutions, a Tempus IV co-financed project, celebrated the success of project application at the University of Alicante, co-ordinator of the project, on December 20th and 21st, 2010.
Dr. Joaquín Juan Marhuenda Fructuoso, Vice-Rector of Institutional Studies Planning of UA, welcomed the project partners from Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Austria and Germany, aand expressed his gratitude to their support of and participation in the project. After this, each partner gave a brief presentation about their institution to the rest of the group and underlined their institutional commitment to the project.
Given to the novelty of the project nature, the coordinator explained the rationale of the project in detail and stressed the importance of financial management for HEIs in the currently competitive economic situation. Afterwards, the UA project manager shared the vision and mission and workplan of the project. Furthermore, good practice models and efficient financial management were introduced and a site visit to the headquarter of SUMA, Provincial Council of Alicante, in the city was organized.
The general objective of UNAM is to give specific support to institutional demands in order to increase efficiency, autonomy & transparency in Financial Management (FM) in partnering Southern Neighbouring Area (SNA) HEIs, in line with national schemes & regional Tempus priorities.
Via this objective, the project seeks supporting mechanisms to already existing ideas in target HEIs. More specifically, the project objectives are to:
- develop transparent financial culture promoting decentralization & financial autonomy;
- create a platform for dialogue through a recognized regional network of University Managers to exchange good practice in FM of HEIs;
- sustainably strengthen managerial, strategic, admin & technical capacities in 8 SNA HEIs through targeted trainings, development of strategies & technical support systems for effective FM by 2013
The role of WUS Austria in this project focuses mainly on ensuring quality assurance of the project’s outputs including also supporting fundraising, strategic and administrative capacities of university staff by providing input for trainings and strategy development.
Once again, WUS Austria wants to thank all involved partner for their valuable contributions, especially the University of Alicante respectively its staff for their professional organisation, very heartily welcome and generous hospitality. WUS Austria is very much looking forward to a fruitful cooperation with all partners within and beyond this interesting and challenging project.
If you want to know more about this project, please visit www.unam-network.net.
Contacts at WUS Austria:
Clemens Juriga (clemens.juriga@wus-austria.org)
Veronika Nitsche (veronika.nitsche@wus-austria.org)
