Webinar: What would a society without universities look like – and how could the university and its societal responsibilities be reimagined?
Date: May 3, 2021, 14.00-17.00
Venue: Online. A Zoom-link for the webinar will be shared closer to the event
Fee: Free
Registration deadline: April 28, 2021
Registration: The meeting consists of two parts, which you can read about below. It is possible to sign up for one part only, or for both parts. Notice that part 1 is only for members of the HEPP SIG.
Registration part 1 Registration part 2
Over the last fifty years or so, the size of universities and enrollment numbers have grown rapidly, and their institutional power and societal entanglements have increased as well. In the wake of this rapid growth, questions about the societal responsibility of universities and the higher education curriculum emerge. Ideally, we would hope to see universities provide a ‘buffer zone’ (Nixon, 2008) or a ‘safe zone’ (Rider, 2018) between the political interests of the state and the self-interest of individuals and the market economy. But are universities contributing to offering such a safe space? And if so, do they do it equally to all, or are they, perhaps unintentionally, only granding it to certain privileged groups?
Part 1, 14.00-16.00
Only for HEPP members
This HEPP-meeting begins with three short scene-setting perspectives from the three organisers, followed by a facilitated workshop in which participants engage in a collective thought-experiment through answering the questions: ‘What would a society without universities look like – and how would we envision their reinvention?
Part 2, 16.00-17.00
Open for all interested
The HEPP-meeting concludes with a keynote talk by Professor and Associate Vice-President David J. Hornsby, Carleton University, Canada – followed by Q&A and an open plenary discussion with the audience.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Online Seminar: More cuts to English-medium education? What is the future of international higher education in Denmark?
Recording of the meeting:
Date: December 4, 2020, 10.00 - 12.00
Venue: Online. A Zoom-link will be shared with the participants upon registration.
Fee: Free
Registration: 
Here
The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science recently announced that ‘interventions are necessary to limit spending on SU (student grants) for EU students’. In 2018, such an intervention resulted in cuts to study programmes with ‘English-speaking’ students. Does this herald further cuts to English-medium higher education? The Higher Education Policy and Practice, HEPP section of DUN is convening this discussion with the aim of understanding the situation from various perspectives and to see if we can find common ground.
The reason for the Minister’s concern is a projected rise in the number of European students receiving financial student support (SU). The political parties have agreed a ceiling of DKK 449 million (2019 prices) for SU expenditure on Non-Danish students from the European Union. Currently, the expenditure is DKK 619 million and the ministry forecasts that the amount may increase to DKK 650 million by 2023. This would be DKK 201 million above the politically agreed maximum. However, it seems that this would still only be 3% of the total Danish SU expenditure (which was DKK 21,059 million in 2019).
The questions we will address include:
- What would further cuts to English-language courses mean for the higher education landscape and the economy in Denmark and for the opportunities available to Danish, let alone international, students?
- How do courses differ in terms of their understanding and practice of ‘internationalisation’? How to engage policy-makers in the discussions of the ‘what, why and how‘ of internationalization, rather than blanket numbers?
- Is there a threat of hastily closing more well-established international programmes? What can we do to ensure least damage?
Members of the panel include Jesper Langergaard, the director of Danske Universiteter, Sandi Rizvić an international officer of Danske Studerendes Fællesråd and Hanne Tange, a researcher of international and intercultural education. We welcome participation from people with experience from the first round of cuts to English-speaking student places.
The session will be hosted by members of the Higher Education Policy and Practice, HEPP section of Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Netværk, DUN, Professor Susan Wright and Matej Zitnansky.
Conference: Research integrity and research freedom – what is the difference, and why does it matter?
The team behind the |
Open SIG webinar in HEPP: Academic citizenship – challenges and possibilities in our timeDate: November 3, 2020, 14.00-16.00 The SIG 'Higher Education Policy and Practice, HEPP' invites to a webinar on academic activism, with guest-speaker Professor Bruce Macfarlane, University of Bristol, who’s written on academic citizenship and freedom over the last two decades.
|
Online SIG-meeting
A preliminary agenda follows here below, and more information will be shared before the meeting, where we shall send out a summary of our last meeting with a description of the four HEPP themes as they emerged more fully through our joint discussion.
|
Launch event
These days, and perhaps more than ever, it’s absolutely crucial to sustain our academic communities across institutional, disciplinary, and curricular boundaries. Also, it’s essential that we come together to discuss how academics may inform and critically discuss policy-making – but also assume greater societal and cultural responsibilities for the time we live in (and to come) and how we build our higher education futures.
|