Abstract
The European strategies and policies on education aim to reform and increase the flexibility of the higher education systems, to better answer the society’s needs, in the context of the challenges raised by the knowledge society. In this context, the quality of higher education has become a matter of public responsibility, and universities, based on their autonomy, should institute efficient university governance mechanisms that would permit an efficient use of their resources. University governance, as a process, relies on a realistic evaluation of the available resources and on the taking on - based on the university autonomy - of a future development direction, in conditions of efficacy and efficiency. The specific demands of the internal managerial control systems make it necessary for the university management to asset - by means of the control function - the results’ deviations from the objectives, to analyze the causes that triggered them and to issue the necessary corrective or preventive measures. In this context, risk management represents an efficient instrument, specific for university governance, in the knowledge society, which contributes to the efficient use of the resources available to the universities.