Towards Financially Sustainable Universities II: Diversifying Income Streams

22-23 April 2010, University of Bologna, Italy
Introduction
In an increasingly competitive environment, Europe’s universities must find a way to become financially sustainable, and cannot afford to wait for the general economic recovery.
Following the success of EUA’s first Experts Conference “Towards Financially Sustainable European Higher Education Institutions” which focused on full costing and accounting practices, this event aims at going further by exploring another crucial element of financial sustainability: income diversification.
This high level conference draws together experts from across Europe to identify the key elements necessary for financial survival in the future. University leaders, policy makers, researchers and partners from the private sector will discuss the results of the EUDIS project and further explore the key features and conditions for implementing successful income diversification strategies.
The EUDIS project consortium is composed of EUA, HUMANE, the University of Bologna and the Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning.
The conference will seek to
*raise awareness of crucial aspects of diversification of funding that contribute to financial sustainability,
*share the first findings of the EUDIS project,
*investigate the challenges that diversified funding brings for leading, managing and governing institutions,
*show institutional and external success factors for broadening the funding base,
*analyse the impact of the economic downturn on universities and their ability to diversify their funding structure.
It is hosted by the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, the most ancient university in the Western world.
Further information on the EUDIS project is available here.
Audience
The conference should be of interest to institutional leaders (rectors, vice rectors, heads of administration and heads of finance departments), higher education researchers and analysts as well as representatives of other bodies involved in educational policy: social partners, employers and senior officials from regional, national and European authorities.