Looking for the Model of the Contemporary University

Universities, with more than nine centuries of history, are facing the following major trends and challenges: diversification of the degrees, program and academic subjects offered (Altbach et al, 2009; Neave, 2000: 19),1 diversification of sources of funding,2 growing pressure on greater efficiency and evaluation based on outcomes, searching for new methods of management and governance (Contraths and Trusso, 2007), increasing staff mobility to create university networks that cooperate and compete simultaneously with each other (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1995, 1996; Lisbon Declaration, 2007), growing pressure to evolve into socially responsible organizations (Leja, 2008) and growing pressure to be publicly responsible for higher education (Bergan et al., 2009).