Information Technology (IT) is a key aspect for Highter Education Institutions (HEI). IT is present in almost all HEI activities and, as a result of this importance, is a strategic asset that needs to be managed in an effective and efficient way. Moreover, IT will transform the way education is delivere, managed and accessed by students. On the other hand, IT Governance is one of the concerns for organizations all over the world. According to Win Van Grembergen, IT "Governance is the organizational capacity to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy and in this way ensure the fusion of business and IT".

With regard to IT Governance, HEIs are similar to any other organization and as a result of the importance of IT Governance as a field of study, HEIs leaders have consumed time and attention on the topic. Apart from generic IT Governance models and standards (COBIT, ISO/IEC 38500, Calder Moir, ...), several literature reported several efforts on IT Governance for HEI, being University-oriented IT pioneering work from Juiz.

This project is aimed to gather a set of researchers from four universities with a wide epxperience in developing and deploying IT Governance (includen ITG4U) models from three different countries (Spain, Germany and Norway) to develop, adapt and test a new IT governance framework to be implemented in several Universities in West Balkans region. Expected results of this project include better governance model for IT in Albanian HEIs as well as an overall modernization of the governance processes for HEIs and a contribution of the cooperation between EU, Norway and West Balkans regions.

Several studies have shown a positive relation betwee effective IT Governance (ITG) and organizational performance enterprises. However, the penetration of this transversal skill in universities is still scarce. The experience of ITG implementation in Spanish universities has shown that the development of ITG methodologies promotes the development of IT staff and other workers at HEIs. Taking this into account, any framework must be tuned in countries, for instance, in HEIs from Western Balkans Region. The three main obstacles in IT Governance (ITG) implementation in HEIs are usually 1) Lack of clear ITG principles, 2) Budget limitations and 3) Lack of method for selecting the ITG framework.

This project aims to tackle the three obstacles by providing a set of experts from HEIs with previous experience on the topic, providing planning and delivery of an ITG framwork. The framework will enhance the management, governance and innovation capacities of IT assets and structures in Partner Countries to address the challenges facing their higher education institutions and systems, including those of quality, relevance, equity of access, planning, delivery, management and governance. Moreover, it will address also these objectives:

• Improve the quality of higher education and enhance its relevance for the labour market and society.
• Enhnce the management, governance and innovation capacities, as well as the internationalisation of HEIs.

These are also connected with regional priorities in the call specific for the region, under improving management and operation of HEI and more precisely, Governance, strategic planning and management of HEIs. In the national priorities, this is also a priority for Albania.

ITG4AU - A project of the Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education

585578-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP Call: EAC/A03/2016

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This project (Project number: 585578-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of its author(s), and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.