Innovation management plays a crucial role in harnessing innovations for economic development. Higher education institutions are considered one of the fundamental stages for embracing and supporting student innovations, especially in the early stages of ideation, selection and experimentation. Within this context, the current study aimed to understand the reality of innovation management in Omani higher education institutions at the pre-innovation stage. The study employed a descriptive methodology using a qualitative phenomenological research design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of 30 participants from two government universities and three private universities. The study utilised thematic analysis for data interpretation. In its findings, the study discusses the current reality of the management of the pre-innovation stage in Omani higher education institutions through five themes: announcing competitions, team formation, supervisory role, exploration of innovative ideas, and policies and regulations. The findings revealed that, despite efforts made by universities, there is a lack of planning or a defined roadmap for the innovation process. The study recommends implementing supportive policies and regulations for innovation, placing more emphasis on planning in the pre-innovation stage and adjusting supervision for students according to their innovative areas. KEYWORDS Innovation management, higher education, pre-innovation stage, innovation stage, innovation policies, Sultanate of Oman.

China's higher education has made remarkable achievements. There are concepts, systems, system and other aspects of the state. Accelerate innovation of higher education management, is the objective requirements to achieve rapid, healthy and sustainable development. For the development and management of higher education in China, a study from the management concept innovation, management institution innovation, management mode innovation, management organization innovation, management system innovation, management means innovation, management method innovation, management mechanism innovation and so on, to provide a theoretical basis and practical methods for higher education management innovation.

Knowledge is considered to be an economic driver in today's economy. It has become a commodity, a resource that can be packed and transferred. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the scope, trends and major actors (firms, organizations, government, consultants, academia, etc.) in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge‐driven economy. The paper identifies the main innovation management techniques (IMTs) aiming at the improvement of firm competitiveness by means of knowledge management. It will specifically focus on those IMTs for which knowledge is a relevant part of the innovation process. The research study, based on a survey at the European level, concludes that a knowledge‐driven economy affects the innovation process and approach. The traditional idea that innovation is based on research (technology‐push theory) and interaction between firms and other actors has been replaced by the current social network theory of innovation, where knowledge plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Simultaneously, organizations in both public and private sectors have launched initiatives to develop methodologies and tools to support business innovation management. Higher education establishments, business schools and consulting companies are developing innovative and adequate methodologies and tools, while public authorities are designing and setting up education and training schemes aimed at disseminating best practices among all kinds of businesses.

Innovation in higher education management and leadership has experienced a continuous increase in demand, worldwide. The emergence of global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, has accelerated the adoption and implementation of this innovation. Furthermore, technological advancement can be attributed to changes in educational management and leadership. The use of business models, theories, and methods such as the Education Management Information System (EMIS) has improved the collection, analysis, interpretation, storage, and retrieval of data to increase how they make well-informed decisions. Therefore, the strategies employed in higher education management and leadership have undergone many changes and updates. However, further research is required to ensure that best practices, evidence, and data-driven methods are used to improve staff/follower satisfaction and high performance of students and teachers in higher education institutions. This study explores the impact of innovation on management and leadership in higher education institutions. Findings from several countries show a strong positive correlation between increase in innovation and better educational management and leadership. Additionally, openness to change and happiness of stakeholders in higher education institutions increases when leaders and educational management are trained through conferences and benchmarking activities. Hence, using emerging technology and openness to change through education, awareness creation, and training, the level of innovation in universities and other higher education institutions increases, which in turn promotes performance and productivity.
 
 Received: 11 August 2021 / Accepted: 3 October 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

The purpose of the article is the development of the concept and fundamentals of the innovatics of higher education, further development, and improvement of higher education innovatics, the definition of directions, and management of innovations in the field of higher education and science. Higher education innovatics, proposed by the authors, studies and summarizes theoretical issues and practices of implementing and managing innovation activities of higher educational institutions, scientific institutions, organizations and management bodies associated with the higher education system. This article analyzes innovative changes in the higher education system caused by the environment of academic capitalism. Among them: basic issues of the organizational theory of higher education innovatics; analysis of the direction and impact of innovation processes in the field of higher education and science on the objects and subjects of innovative transformations; the role of the state in the management of innovation activities in the field of higher education and science; types of innovations in the higher education system that can lead to innovative changes; innovations of economic and market type in higher education; innovations of organizational type in the higher education sphere; innovations of educational and pedagogical type in the system of higher education; means and tools for innovation management in education; problems of the forced or emergency distance learning, etc.Innovative activity in the field of higher education and science leads to serious innovative transformations both in the entire field of higher education and science, and in its subjects – universities, research institutes, and related organizations and institutions.

This paper presents and discusses the use of knowledge management to support innovation in higher education institutions (HEI). The study was conducted at Brasil-STHEM Consortium - a network of Brazilian higher education institutions that work together in the implementation of innovation in their teaching and learning practises. 29 HEI participated in the study that was designed as an exploratory research and used the Asian Productivity Association (APO) knowledge management maturity level assessment tool as a framework for data collection and analysis. Results demonstrate that there was openness for knowledge management and that there is technological infrastructure available for this to happen, but found little evidence of the systematic use of knowledge management practices. The study contributes to research and practise in education management by proposing the use of KM theory and tools to understand how knowledge being generated by higher education institutions can be identified, stored, shared, created and applied in order to amplify its impact to educational change and innovation.

In management education, there is ample scope for pedagogical innovations. We periodically come up with innovative ideas in teaching. From the origination of Plato’s Academy in ancient Greece, to the founding of Harvard Business School in the 1908 up to the advent of online degree programs in the late twentieth century, the scene in the higher education has been constantly changing especially in the management field. The teacher centric classroom is changing to learner centric classrooms.Providing education in new and unconventional ways is only one of a number of solutions, but it is through innovation that we can meet the challenges of improved efficiencies, lower costs, increasing accessibility, and greater success in achieving development goals through education. . Higher education institutions have to take into account the changing scenario and build strategies to become innovative. The issue is to build a case for quality in higher education taking the advantage of globalisation. The responsibility is to provide an education capable of producing men and women of quality and competence to match the needs and requirements of the corporate world.

In this chapter, KM-based innovation model is built for higher education. The focus of the research has been to study the mediating impact of KM between HRP and innovation, so that the whole model is geared toward KMP. KMIM is not intended to radically improve the quality of higher education, but to encourage creativity through HRP and KMP, but to indirectly improve the quality of education offered by higher education institutions. This chapter discusses all the elements of the model and how it will continue to improve the standard of higher education.

In recent decades, the Russian education system has been constantly reformed. Its current state and problems cannot be understood without identifying the subject initiating and carrying out these permanent changes. Such a subject is an innovative bureaucracy - a specific type of bureaucracy that serves innovative processes and creates social and organizational routines from them. This bureaucracy managed to make a conveyor of innovations, which often moves in a circle - without beginning or end. The reforms have become pendulum and repeat at certain intervals. The article considers numerous consequences and excesses of the innovative bureaucracy’s dominance in the higher education management, which are determined by this bureaucracy success in replacing the real, socially significant goals of the higher education system with indicators that can be quickly achieved and reported as if for the public good. The harsh administrative pressure of the innovative bureaucracy leads to the constant updating and combination of standards (although not all their content can be standardized), to an increase in reporting (including in electronic, online form) and in teaching load. The lack and ambivalence of goals and the non-stop projects of changes hinder the formation of institutional matrix to meet the contemporary challenges and determine destabilizing processes in the education system. The authors argue that an institutional approach to the higher education management can change the situation, since it focuses not on administrative orders and formal goals but on establishing norms and rules for the education system self-development. Thus, the efficiency of the education system should be evaluated by the society and the state and not by representatives of the innovative bureaucracy, who strive to preserve the innovation conveyor. The principles of post-industrial management should be applied in the higher education system, replacing the bureaucratic approach to the implementation of innovations.

In the context of reforming the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is an urgent need to review the approaches to determining the level of education and qualification of specialists for the organization of the educational process in higher institutions. Increased technological advances, coupled with new learners’ needs and pandemic situation, have created new realities for higher education contexts. The research findings shed light on trends in project management in higher education. Project management for innovations has come to be viewed nowadays as a crucial tool in increasing productivity of organizations and one of the most popular and useful tools for institutions to improve internal operations, respond to opportunities, manage contemporary challenges, and achieve strategic goals. A more in depth understanding of innovation can help administrators inspire innovations, mobilize those looking to innovate, respond to forms of resistance that are likely to emerge, and oversee the innovation diffusion process. A discussion of the following topics is meant to facilitate that understanding: impetuses for innovation, characteristics of language programs that stimulate or hinder innovation, and paths to successful innovation diffusion. The article concludes suggestions that are meant to guide language program administrators in their efforts to promote successful innovation while they simultaneously juggle the multifaceted demands of their administrative position in higher education institutions. Education during the pandemic have exposed education staff to a complicated array of pressures that impact their work methods and ability to function, but have also provided education leaders with opportunities to act autonomously and initiate changes in their institutions. Due to these changes, project management has become a critical tool for institutions and therefore adaptation of this discipline in the context is a matter of the highest priority in current educational systems. More specifically, this article has both theoretical and practical contributions. It promotes knowledge and understanding of project management within the institution’s contexts. Education sector specialists need to work with their existing skill sets for crisis-responsive programming but also need to develop new skills since we are all working under new conditions – specifically driven by social distancing parameters.