Networks in university governance in mendoza: protagonists’ perspective

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7232007

Debates about university governance are highly relevant both at local, regional and international levels. This article focuses on the analysis of characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of cooperation and coordination policies carried out by private universities in Mendoza among themselves and with state universities, as manifested by the leaders in charge of those universities and of other organizations of Mendocinian society. A qualitative method has been used, based on interviews with seven leaders of private universities in Mendoza, Argentina; complemented with document analysis. Results show that there exist networks of private universities which have been working assiduously, like the Andean Network of Universities (RADU, since 17 years ago) in the various university functions of teaching, research and extension. In addition, eight universities in the province, both private and state ones, have been able to establish networks along time, and recently, a new networks has been created together with Argentina’s national Research Council (CONICET), to impact on the region’s I+D (Research and Development). As a conclusion, it can be said that universities, in their communication processes and inter-institutional relations, based on cooperation, have been able to overcome the obstacles of their own view of mutual competition, and are having positive impact on Mendoza’s society, although there are dissimilar opinions regarding these networks by their protagonists.
KEY WORDS: university governance, leaders, networks, cooperation