12. Fostering Good Governance in Higher Education Institutions: The Case of Colombia

The development of good governance practices is necessary for every type of institution. The mitigation of conflicts of interest and an appropriate balance of powers must be sought between governance actors to ensure organizations work toward the common purpose and avoid being held hostage by the interests of a particular individual or group of stakeholders. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Colombia are nonprofit by law. The absence of shareholders, or owners in general, in these organizations imposes specific challenges in terms of mitigating conflicts of interest. Colombia’s Ministry of Education is aware of this, and together with other education sector government agencies, teachers, deans, and rectors of various institutions have in the past decade participated in discussions on the need to encourage good governance at the country’s HEIs. These discussions have led to concrete actions being implemented, but at the same time revealed the need for further work. In this chapter, we propose a course of action that Colombia, and indeed any country in Latin America and beyond, can follow in order to encourage the implementation of good governance practices in HEIs.