Institutional change in alliances relies on people and not structures alone

The success of institutional transformation in the European Universities Initiative (EUI) depends on the extent to which those implementing change take ownership of the project and
not solely on institutions' governance structures or strategies.

"Institutional transformation cannot be achieved through structural design alone but depends on organisations’ capacity to support relational processes of meaning-building. This highlights the importance of recognising middle managers not merely as implementers, but as key change agents in negotiating and stabilising institutional change," according to Agata Mannino, Across alliance coordinator at Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany, in published in July 2026 entitled "Sensemaking and Institutional Transformation in European University…