INnovative Governance Practices inthe Higher Educations Institutions in Iraq

The overarching goal of INsPIRe is to support modernisation and internationalisation of the Governancesystem of HEIs in Iraq with a specific focus on planning and programming systems. Due to the recent crisisand political economic situation, the current higher education system requires a strong intervention to facethe weakness of the existing governance system. The WP1- Update of needs analysis requires the realisationof a comprehensive literature review aimed at identifying the existing governance frameworks and thedevelopment of an update needs analysis in Iraq HE system. The WP2- Training and capacity buildingactivities for internal staff in quality assurance and strategic planning aims at realising capacity buildingthrough: online training; 3-days training study visits at four European Universities; 3-days training fieldmissions in Iraq; 10 ToT (one per Iraqi university). Once the training section will end, the partners are readyto start the WP3- Implementation of changes and best practices through action plans, where the traineesand their institutions will be involved in the development of action plans that should be implemented by eachHEI. According to the relevant literature on higher education governance, internationalization and wide participation of stakeholders are trend topic that guarantee a better governance. Thus the WP4 provides aspecific focus on the management and governance of international relation through the development ofuseful tools and techniques. The WP5 provides the set up of a formal consultative body within HEIs, in orderto assure a better coordination between the systems of higher education, and private/public sector, alsoensuring the involvement of other non-state actors. In term of impact at short term, improvement andstrength of skills and knowledge on innovative governance practices and strategic planning topics will beensured as well as on long term the development of an ongoing process of self-improvement.