UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: THE CASE OF UNIGOV PROJECT “IMPROVING GOVERNANCE PRACTICES AT PALESTINIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS” M. Najjar 1 , A. Nour 2 1 An-Najah National University, Department of Business Administration (PALESTINIAN TERRITORY) 2 An-Najah National University, Accounting Department (PALESTINIAN TERRITORY) Abstract The higher education institutions in Palestine lag behind their global counterparts on the major university ranking systems. Several studies have highlighted that competent governance systems and accountability practices should be inaugurated in order to retain a decent position across various ranking systems. This research attempts to fill this void. More specifically, by drawing on the results of the UNIGOV Project “Improving Governance Practices at Palestinian Higher Education Institutions” as a case study, this research potentially attempts to explore the main weaknesses in governance systems across five Palestinian universities and proposes innovative mechanisms to improve the academic quality and educational systems as a whole. UNIGOV is an international cooperation project funded by the Erasmus Plus of the European Union (Project #: 573684-EPP-1-2016-1-PS-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). It seeks to benchmark five European universities’ governance systems (from Italy, Slovenia, Ireland, and Portugal), identify best practices, while facilitating knowledge transfer between Palestinian universities and their European counterparts. Firstly, three university activities have been recognized (i.e. teaching, research, and social responsibility) and four governance dimensions have been identified during the preparation stage of the project (i.e. autonomy, accountability, management techniques, and participation). Secondly, the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) have been utilized to evaluate the weights of these activities across the different dimensions of governance in order to explore the significance of these dimensions on governance systems across Palestinian universities. The research provides a thorough and practical understanding of governance systems in Palestinian universities. The results show that teaching and research are still the dominant activities in Palestinian universities. Although there are weaknesses in all dimensions of governance across the different university activities, the results show that social responsibility activity is given less emphasis across the various dimensions of governance (compared to teaching and research). Finally, the overall results advocate that more strategies and practices should be established in order to strengthen academic autonomy, quality assurance systems, evaluation systems, and disclosure of financial information to the public in order to improve the governance of Higher Education System in Palestine. The project and the results of the analysis can be considered a modest step towards establishing a more competent and resilient Higher Education System in Palestine. Keywords: Governance, Erasmus+, Governance Practices. 1 INTRODUCTION According to OECD, governance is defined as “procedures and processes according to which an organization is directed and controlled. The governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among the different participants in the organization – such as the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders – and lays down the rules and procedures for decision-making.” (OECD 2004). Governance practices assist organizations in establishing trust, transparency, and more importantly an accountable working environment, thereby building the structure necessary to build organizations’ goals and the approaches to achieve those goals. The term Governance is a very comprehensive and multi-disciplinary concept that may involve other aspects that extends beyond steering and controlling [1]. In Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), several governance models have been established. One of the well-known frameworks is the Tringle of Proceedings of INTED2022 Conference 7th-8th March 2022 ISBN: 978-84-09-37758-9 2988