Study Visit on Financial Management in HE, 4th-7th of June 2013
Vienna. In course of the Higher KOS project and its measures to improve the quality management of higher education (HE) institutions in Kosovo, a study visit took place in Vienna from 4th to 7th of June 2013. The contents focused on budget planning and financial management with the aim to show the delegation from Kosovo methods and good practice examples from the Austrian system and elaborate suggestions for related procedures at their home institutions.
The delegation from Kosovo consisted of seven representatives from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Kosovo, University of Prishtina, University of Prizren, and the Kosovo Accreditation Agency.
During the four days of the study visit, several high-level representatives from different institutions in Austria provided their specific expertise, exchanged experiences and discussed practice examples with the group.
At the very beginning, participants learnt about the main aspects and background of the general budget reform in Austria, being essential for the financial management and budgeting in HE. Furthermore, the Universities Act 2002 and performance agreements between the Ministry of Science and Research and HE institutions were discussed considering their manifold implications for all stakeholders involved. Finally, concrete examples of several Austrian HE institutions were presented to explain the actual implementation of performance management and budget as well as gender management and budgeting.
The programme was completed by a reflection and group work among participants to identify the key learnings and elaborate the focus of forthcoming project activities towards improving the processes of budget planning and financial management in the field of HE in Kosovo.
The presentations during the study visit were made by high-level representatives from the following institutions:
- Austrian Federal Chancellery (Mag.a Monika GEPPL - Deputy Head of Department “Outcome-Controlling and Innovation in the Public Administration”)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (Dr. Andreas BERGER, MBA - Department “Budget – Education, Arts and Culture, Science and Research”)
- Federal Ministry of Science and Research (Mag. Elmar PICHL - Deputy Head of Division I; Mag. Philipp OTTO - Head of Unit “Budget Planning”)
- Medical University Vienna (Ao. Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Karin GUTIÈRREZ-LOBOS - Vice-rector for Education, Gender & Diversity)
- Vienna University of Economics and Business (Dr.in Dr.in Regina PREHOFER - Vice-rector for Finances and Infrastructure)
- University of Vienna (Mag. Alexander HAMMER - Head of Accounting and Finance)
- University of Applied Sciences FH Campus Wien (Mag. Dr. Manfred TEINER - CEO; FH-Prof.in Mag.a Ulrike ALKER, MA - Head of Gender & Diversity Management)
- OeAD-GmbH (Mag. Ulrich HÖRMANN - Head of Finance)
We highly appreciate the efforts made by the mentioned high-level presenters and want to thank all of them for their valuable inputs!
We also want to thank Contrast Management-Consulting for their organizational support in the preparation of the visit.
