[en] It is well documented that Higher Educational institutions have not, until recently, been known for their speedy response to innovation and opportunity. Furthermore, academic staff are frequently so preoccupied with endeavours to satisfy the three fundamental demands on their existence (research, administration and teaching) that entrepreneurial and visionary strategies are largely ignored. Coping with change then, tends largely to be reactive with staff only responding to such matters as the decline in student numbers or the threat of reduction in research funds. This paper seeks to examine the radical transformation of skills currently required by all those working in higher education. It will present briefly an outline of relevant models on how to manage successful change. A consideration will be made of current staff development initiatives, designed to equip higher education staff with skills to cope with their changing role. Throughout the world funds for higher education are dwindling. Departments and individu?is are bound to consider such, hitherto disreputable, practices as marketing, and entrepreneuralism and the need for long and short term development plans. Staff development in higher education has been frequently of a fire-fighting nature. Little heed has been taken of specific needs or the identification of future trends or threats to the organisation. Higher education staff are now expected to eval?ate their work more assiduously, be more accountable to their students and to work in collaboration with others. Many staff were employed at a time when individualism was sacrosanct, teaching carne a poor third in the list of priorities and research was paramount. (In some places, of course, little has changed). This paper will attempt to show that such myopia is no longer acceptable or possible. If higher education establishments are to thrive in a competitive environment, define quality in meaningful terms, encourage better standards of student learning while adopting positive attitudes to innovation and possibilities, then staff need to be given the opportunity to develop appropriate creative learning skills. From such a basis they can more confidently confront an unpredictable future. This paper will seek to offer suggestions of ways in which such needs can be satisfied through imaginative and flexible staff development programmes and initiatives.

[es] Es bien sabido que las universidades no han sido, hasta hace poco, conocidas por sus r?pidas respuestas a la innovaci?n y crecimiento. Adem?s, los profesores universitarios, jefes de departamento, decanos, etc. est?n frecuentemente preocupados por intentar satisfacer las tres demandas fundamentales de su existencia como organizaciones (investigaci?n, administraci?n y ense?anza), de modo que las estrategias de futuro y la creatividad son, con frecuencia, ignoradas. En las universidades, debido al aumento de los problemas administrativos (burocracia) y la presi?n exteriores, el "staff" s?lo tiene la posibilidad de "reaccionar" a los cambios en lugar de ser ellos los art?fices de los mismos. Problemas tales como: el n?mero de estudiantes y la necesidad de obtener financiaci?n para investigar, afectan a la mayor?a de las universidades de todo el mundo. Este art?culo trata de examinar la transformaci?n radical de estrategias que son imprescindibles hoy en d?a para aquellos que se mueven en el mundillo universitario. Se presentar? un resumen de modelos de c?mo realizar un cambio que pueda llevar al ?xito. Se har?, asimismo, un repaso de las iniciativas de formaci?n del "staff", dise?adas para equipar a ?ste de los mecanismos que le ayuden a enfrentarse a un rol en continuo cambio. La formaci?n del "staff no es ya una simple opci?n para cualquier organizaci?n y, las universidades, como organizaciones que son, no son una excepci?n. Dicha formaci?n es la conexi?n vital entre los objetivos de la organizaci?n y la pr?ctica. Si no se le da al "staff los instrumentos necesarios para poner estos objetivos en pr?ctica, nada se lograr?. Las universidades de todo el mundo est?n siendo cada vez m?s competitivas. As?, pues, en mayor medida, deben entender c?mo gestionar el cambio, para estar m?s capacitadas en cuanto a un mayor control de su futuro. Hoy por hoy, se espera que toda organizaci?n sea capaz de definir qu? es calidad en relaci?n con lo que hace. El desarrollo de nuevas metodolog?as de trabajo y la creaci?n de nuevos modelos que tengan en cuenta el contexto de trabajo y aplicaci?n del mismo podr?an, a nuestro modo de ver, conducir a una mejora de esa calidad. La intenci?n de este art?culo no es otra, pues, que mostrar modos en que las universidades podr?an poner en marcha mecanismos para esa siempre bienvenida mejora de quienes forman y conforman dichas organizaciones, tan complejas y, al mismo tiempo, apasionantes.