This qualitative within-case study explored how planned educational change in universities can be facilitated through academic professional development strategies. Thus this study attempted to shed some light on the dynamics of educational planned change in universities and their implications for academic professional development of faculty. The purpose of this study was to examine the process of planned educational change that took place at Universidad Metropolitana (UNIMET) in Caracas, Venezuela, between the years 1995 and 2002. This study analyzed the main characteristics of this process, identifying and describing its categorical aspect in terms of new structures and new strategies. Likewise, this research sough to explore the dynamic aspects of this process of change, particularly in relation to the new frames of reference for the construction, change, and development of meanings. Finally, the researcher aimed at exploring the relations between the categorical and dynamic aspects of the change process, and how these relations inform the design of academic professional development strategies that can facilitate educational change at UNIMET. Findings of this study demonstrated that the process of educational change at UNIMET implied essentially and above all a cultural change. Furthermore, this process of change represented an attempt to shift the paradigm from a teacher centered to a student centered approach to education. This process was activated through the creation of new structures and the implementation of new strategies. These new structures and strategies revealed both, the introduction of new frameworks of meanings; and the beginning of a dynamic process of construction, change and development of meanings. However, the prevalence of training and instruction methodologies, and the "contents-expert centered" or "teacher-centered" nature of the most widely available opportunities for academic professional development of UNIMET's faculty suggested the occurrence of a fragmentation between the contents and the processes of change. Finally, the researcher provided some recommendations aimed at fostering Academic Professional Development Strategies that could support second-order, or double-loop cultural transformations of UNIMET's educational change process. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]