In January 2006 the European University Association launched an ambitious program about Creativity in Higher Education , with support from the Commission of the European Union. One of the four networks established within this framework was to deal with the issue of higher education institutions’ creativity in relation to their city or region. “Region” was defined as a distinct geographical area anchored around a city. When introducing the Central European University (CEU) at the first meeting of the network, it was quite a hard job to convince colleagues from a few other European countries that it can be reasonable for a university, even a small one, to work for a larger “region”, not anchored around any given city. CEU’s “region” includes not less than all countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Eventually, my colleagues became even more intrigued when I explained that CEU’s success, its original (”creative”) contribution to this large region, and possibly beyond, are largely in terms of policy, and that the very themes of public policy and governance, in a transnational perspective, are central to the university’s mission.  Questions raised in this particular situation may be relevant for a more general discussion about ways in which a university can contribute to global governance: How can any university contribute anything pertinent in terms of policy and governance to a large and heterogeneous region? How can CEU claim any success in working for a “constituency” that brings together so many different countries, from Hungary to Mongolia? How can a serious university put policy at the core of its work anyway? How can it hope to influence policy and governance aspects across so many national borders and, in general, across any regional, let alone global neighborhood, when it is known that universities rarely do this even in their immediate neighborhood or national context?

• INDEX
  • 1. University mission in policy and governace
  • 2. The educational programm
  • 3. The Institutional mechanisms
  • 4. Activities
  • 5. Transational policy and global governance competence
  • 6. Conclusion