Institutional improvement from the perspective of the university's governance in the UNED of Costa Rica

The present context demands policies and practices of quality assurance, accountability and transparency to the universities, which require the university's governance commitment. In this article, we present evidences about how the participative dialogue of the leaders with the university community allows identifying opportunities for improvement in teaching, research, extension, management and colleges. A qualitative methodology was used; an open question questionnaire was applied to candidates to the University Council in 2017. The results show that internal management has to be improved, in relation to strategic planning, normativity, and process. In addition, there is a lack of effective participatory mechanisms for internal groups (students, academics and administrative personal) and stakeholders (communities, business sector and government) in the university governance.