1. Key concepts in higher education
This workshop will introduce some of the key concepts in higher education that allow to understand what higher education is about and how it functions. This list of concepts will include: the idea of university and the exceptional nature of universities as a particular type of institution; models of higher education institutions; enrollment, access and participation rates; autonomy and accountability (including quality assurance); funding; main trends in contemporary higher education.
2. The "purposes" of higher education and the public policy functions of higher education
This workshop will discuss about "purposes" and public policy functions of higher education as they are understood by various key stakeholders: students, academics, politicians and policy makers, business sector, civil society organizations, etc. "Purposes" and public policy functions include: preparation for professional careers (jobs); production of new knowledge; preparation of political elites; training national bureaucracy; economic efficacy and competitiveness; geopolitical roles; construction and assertion of national identity; individual and group emancipation;
3. Roma and higher education
The last workshop will be a discussion about how higher education could or should contribute to addressing specific issues of Roma individuals and Roma communities. It will address such questions such as: is there a role for higher education in supporting the emancipation of Roma individuals and community? is there a need for special programs for Roma in higher education?
Liviu Matei is CEU’s Provost and Pro-Rector, and Professor at the School of Public Policy. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 2008 to 2014, and as Academic Secretary of CEU from 1999 to 2008.
He benefited from fellowships at the Institut Supérieur de Formation Sociale et de Communication, Bruxelles, The New School for Social Research, Université Paris X Nanterre, Université de Savoie, and the Salzburg Seminar. He taught at universities in Romania, Hungary and the U.S., and consulted extensively in the area of higher education policy for the World Bank, UNESCO, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and other international organizations and national governments in Europe and Asia. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Central Asia and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the European Higher Education Area. He studied philosophy and psychology at Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj, and Sociology at Bucharest University, Romania. He received his PhD from the latter.