Implementing an University Risk Management approach at the University of Liège : the lessons from one year experiment

In the vision of educational organisations as loosely coupled systems already depicted by Weick in 1976, the need for a global and integrated management system allowing to optimise dynamically the use of scarce resources in an environment characterized by an increasing pressure to comply to the multiple requirements imposed by the numerous internal and external stakeholders of (Public) Universities is growing. In this context, this study relies on an analysis of the recent literature about risk management in complex organizations and on the first lessons drawn from a first one-year experiment in the implementation of an ERM approach in a Public University context to discuss the interest of developing an effective University Risk Management methodology and protocol in a University and to identify the benefits of ERM for universities.