Higher Education in times of crisis: Academic Management from the Perspective of Complex Thinking

Abstract

 This article presents a theoretical reflection on the challenges of academic management in higher education, grounded in the principles of Edgar Morin's complex thinking. Through a qualitative, theoretical-reflective approach supported by a critical literature review, it analyzes the inadequacy of traditional management models, centered on predictability and control, in the face of the demands of the contemporary university. The study is structured into three axes: the paradigmatic transition toward complexity in higher education, as discussed by Kuhn (2006) and Morin (2011); the reinvention of management through agility and innovation under Nel Noddings' (2012) ethics of care; and the impacts of these transformations on teaching, mediated by digital culture and active methodologies. The findings indicate that academic management, when guided by a dialogical approach, strengthens the university as a socially committed formative space. It concludes that collaborative and sensitive practices must materialize through active listening to the community, the co-authorship of pedagogical processes, and continuing teacher education policies that integrate the subjects' subjectivity with technical rationality, promoting an education that is more humane and connected to the uncertainties of the present.