Strategic Planning in Spanish public universities: an analysis of their objetives

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions are undergoing important changes involving the development of new roles and missions, which is having implications for their structure and administration. These institutions have responded differently based on their particular regulations and social circumstances. The goal of the paper is to explore how Spanish public universities define their objectives and strategies to adapt or to respond to the changing demands of society adopting a similar («desirable») university model or differentiating themselves. The analysis of the universities strategic plans show that the diversity of Spanish public universities is proving problematic for the use of international rankings and more homogeneous university performance evaluations, especially to determine funding levels.

Keywords

• planificación estratégica
• análisis de contenido
• indicadores
• tipología de universidades
• educación superior