Global Higher Education Environment Research Articles

Blurring the boundaries. University actorhood and institutional change in global higher education

ABSTRACT Higher education (HE) scholarship often focuses on the so-called ‘entrepreneurial’ university as a consequence of new public management reforms. Simultaneously, the remarkable expansion of private HE is said to fragment, specialize, and diversify HE systems. Such diagnoses are misleading as they ignore wider environmental pressures and simultaneous changes in both public, non-profit and for-profit HE. We argue that putative diversity in HE operates as a ceremonial façade behind which large-scale isomorphic change across national HE systems, sectors, and organizational forms occurs. Multiple causes trigger such change originating in the increasingly global HE environment, including a burgeoning international HE regime, accounting and accountability practices, increased permeability of HE systems facilitated by open borders, education markets, and global science as well as (neo)liberal ideologies stressing human capital and human rights. As other organizations, those in HE become subject to these pressures turning universities into more rationalized, standardized, and strategic actors.

Research Ethics in the Securitised University

Addressing the complex and longstanding relationship between universities and security and intelligence agencies, this article provides a tentative, working conceptual framework for research ethics in a global higher education environment. The article does so in the light of intensified threats of international terrorism which have brought this historic relationship to the contemporary foreground of academic life. Seeing higher education environments as part of a broader process of enhanced security in societies worldwide, we use securitization theory to provide an analytical framework specifically for understanding a complex of historical-contemporary relationships between universities and security and intelligence agencies. As the basis for framing the ethical issues which arise for researchers across all disciplines, the intention is to raise awareness of a relationship which by its very, especially historical, nature, has been secret. The article suggests identify a three-fold analytical framework were structural, operational and ethical considerations are interwoven in complex ways. At the structural level we identify three modus operandi (covert, overt, covert-overt); and four academic ethical principles (standards; freedom; engagement; conduct). While the conceptual framework presented makes no pretence of offering a complete or comprehensive picture of a complex and still evolving relationship, the intention is provide some critical balance and coherence to a contentious not to say often divisive aspect of research ethics in the securitised university.

Конкурентоспособность современного малого вуза в Европе

nfluenced by the deepening globalization processes on the one hand and by the intensively developing information and communication technologies on the other, the contemporary European higher education system has been obtaining new traits which distinguish it from the previous development paradigms (1.0 and 2.0). The new higher education system 3.0 formed within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is developing under the conditions of harsh competition both within the national higher education systems and in the global higher education environment. These factors are taken into consideration by supporters of the Bologna Process, trying to strengthen the competitiveness of the European higher education system with all possible means. The authors have researched the phenomenon of the small university and conducted sociological surveys aimed at investigating competitive strategies of European small universities, elaborated to ensure their competitiveness and sustainability in EHEA and on the global market of educational services. The undertaken research has resulted in a preliminary conclusion that the complicated problems of small universities’ competitiveness cannot be effectively solved without both cognitive and procedural changes at every level – that of small universities’ administration, employers and students. The research has also resulted in identified advantages and effective strategies aimed at increasing competitiveness of small universities in Finland and France. The authors have analyzed the good practices and successful experience of increasing competitiveness of Finnish and French small universities and generalised them as recommendations intended for small universities’ administration and other stakeholders.

Of things to come: Tourism and hospitality education in a post-industrial age

Across the globe, tourism higher education is undergoing massive and sustained change driven by three interlocking sets of concerns. First, there are massive changes taking place in the global higher education environment that have important implications for how tourism education is positioned at national, sub-national and institutional levels, second, as most developed countries move into a post-industrial epoch, traditional industrial tourism structures and practices are increasingly subject to pres­sures that are likely to bring about significant structural change. Third, massive changes in higher education combined with the changes taking place in tourism itself, suggest that there are significant implications for the future of tourism and hospitality higher education. Yet to date, discussion and exploration of this latter concern the future of tourism education has taken place in isolation from the earlier two areas of concern, almost as if they were discourses painted on different canvasses, colored with different values and issues, and crafted using different language. This paper explores future challenges for tourism and hospitality education within this changing tourism world, and it discusses key issues for the future development of tourism curriculum and for professional development.

Transnational teaching experiences: an under‐explored territory for transformative professional development

In an increasingly global higher education environment, many universities are taking their educational services overseas. One model of overseas provision is through transnational (offshore) education. Transnational teaching challenges the prevailing understanding of an academic role at every level. Transnational teachers are expected to work in environments, climates and classrooms which are culturally very different to their own. Assumptions about university education are shaken and teachers find themselves having to return to and question the fundamentals of their teaching, learning and assessment practices. This paper argues that the experience of being a transnational teacher and working in a culture very different to one’s own forces reflection which can lead to ‘perspective transformation’; as such it could be a powerful professional development opportunity which should be nurtured and supported. This paper draws on the growing body of published literature on staff experiences of transnational teaching and my own experiences as a transnational teacher to support this argument. It shows that the ‘novel experiences’ of transnational teaching encourage content, process and premise reflection that can, with appropriate support, ultimately improve teaching practice not just in the transnational context, but also back home. Dans un environnement de l’enseignement supérieur de plus en plus globalisé, nombre d’universités étendent leur prestation de services éducatifs outremer. L’éducation transnationale délocalisée (offshore education) est un de ces modèles de prestation de services outremer. L’enseignement transnational pose des défis à la compréhension dominante du rôle académique à tous les niveaux. Les présupposés au sujet de l’éducation universitaire sont remis en question et les enseignants doivent dès lors revoir et remettre en question les fondements de leurs pratiques liées à l’enseignement, à l’apprentissage et à l’évaluation. Cet article défend l’idée que l’expérience de devenir un enseignant transnational et d’œuvrer dans une culture qui est très différente de la sienne force une réflexion qui peut conduire à une « transformation de perspective ». En ce sens, il pourrait s’agir d’une occasion de développement professionnel puissante, laquelle devrait être soutenue et encouragée. L’article repose sur un corpus de documentation en pleine croissance portant sur l’enseignement transnational ainsi que sur mes propres expériences à titre d’enseignement transnational. Il fait la démonstration que des « expériences nouvelles » de l’enseignement transnational encouragent une réflexion au sujet du contenu, du processus et des présupposés, laquelle, en fonction d’un soutien adapté, peut en fin de compte améliorer la pratique enseignante non seulement dans le contexte transnational mais aussi à domicile.