"Rectors for a Day": A Bottom-Up Policy Vision for the Post-Pandemic University

Post-pandemic higher education policy has largely followed a top-down, techno-centric logic, often overlooking the strategic knowledge accumulated by faculty during Emergency Remote Teaching. This qualitative pilot study proposes a bottom-up policy perspective by asking university instructors to imagine themselves as “Rectors for a day” and articulate their priorities for institutional reform. Using a participatory policy analysis and scenario-based inquiry, the study analyzes responses from a purposive sample of five professors across Southern Europe. Contrary to prevailing institutional agendas, faculty do not prioritize new technologies or infrastructure. Instead, a coherent policy vision emerges around three pillars: structural flexibility, protected time for pedagogical redesign, and assessment reform. Respondents emphasize that meaningful digital and hybrid innovation is impossible without workload recognition, reduced bureaucratic rigidity, and institutional validation of alternative assessment models. The findings suggest that post-pandemic resilience depends less on further technological investment than on governance reforms that enable faculty agency and pedagogical sustainability. Although exploratory, the study demonstrates the value of distributed leadership and practitioner-informed policy design, offering a strategic hypothesis for rethinking university governance in the post-pandemic era.