Resumen

ROMERO M, Néstor L. Management to Transform the Public Autonomous Universities in Venezuela.. Revista Venezolana de Gerencia [online]. 2007, vol.12, n.40, pp.599-621. ISSN 1315-9984.

In Venezuela, there is an urgent need for transforming the educational system into an effective, efficient instrument for personal and collective development, as defined in the 1999 National Constitution. Public Autonomous Universities are obliged to assume this new mission due to their functions and position at the top of the educational system. Even though the transformation should be integral and involve the whole spectrum of functions and services performed by the universities, the present study will be limited only to university management, since it is on these levels that decisions must be taken for planning, execution, evaluation and control of those change processes. The objective of this study is to perform a critical analysis of some contributions from management theory deemed applicable and from the university model set forth in the current Law of Universities, in order to contrast these theories with the model and detect any problems which have prevented previous transformation attempts from becoming reality. Due to the complexity characterizing these organizations, analytical, critical and hermeneutic methods were applied to obtain conclusions that would allow recommendations to be made.

Palabras clave : Management of university transformation; university reform; management of higher education; management for change; public autonomous universities.