Higher Education Management: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract

In the year 1416, Henry, the son of King John I of Portugal, established a base at Sangres in the southwestern part of that Atlantic coast country to foster exploration of Africa’s western coast. In addition to constructing a naval arsenal Prince Henry started an innovative school to study and teach navigation and geography. The school enabled Portuguese sailors to explore West Africa, and, soon after, reach India, Goa, and Brazil. Within decades little, poor Portugal became a great and wealthy colonial empire. Like Prince Henry, many national leaders today have been improving schools and building new universities to increase the quality of their workforce, or human capital, in order to improve economic growth, military security, public health, cultural vitality, and political sagacity (Bowen, 1977; Schultz, 1981). Intellect building is increasingly seen as essential to nation building. Higher education has become, and is likely to remain, a central activity of developed and many developing countries. It is now the preferred approach among national leaders to prepare a country’s more able young people for tomorrow’s Darwinian social environment. From Mexico, Brazil, and Poland to Malaysia, South Korea, and China the number of universities and specialized institutes has multiplied and enrollments have swelled (Altbach, 2002).