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This study explores caste discrimination in Indian higher education through curriculum and pedagogical approaches in the classroom. Classrooms in India have not only played a significant role in knowledge production but have also been (re)-producing caste-based prejudice, discrimination, and social inequalities, both inside and outside the Indian education system. On the basis of the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 15 Dalit students, the study explores the caste dynamics operating within the classrooms of universities based in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India. The aim of the study is to understand what a 'classroom' means to Dalit students at a university situated in a caste-ridden hierarchical society. It seeks to determine how the pedagogical practices and curriculum play a crucial role in producing and reproducing a hierarchy of knowledge and re-enforce caste-based social inequality. The study argues that Dalit students do not passively accept their fate but tend to organise and resist caste practices in higher education. Also, they advocate for diversity in curricula and pedagogy to make higher education more accessible, inclusive, and democratic. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

This paper explores the impact of managerialism on democracy in Higher Education by analyzing the implications of the Legal Framework of Higher Education Institutions in Portugal from 2007 to 2022. The findings, drawn from data on representation and electoral participation, reveal deficiencies in democratic governance. Notably, General Councils lacking legitimacy, and there is insufficient representation within the teaching and research community. Consequently, the disparities in electoral representation and labor rights disproportionately affect those facing precarity and job insecurity. The law's inability to strengthen accountability, transparency, and participation underscores the urgent need to promote democratic governance within public higher education institutions. By shedding light on the impacts of the Legal Framework, this research emphasizes the crucial task of evaluating and enhancing democratic governance in higher education for the benefit of the academic community and society at large. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Nowadays, university rankings are a familiar phenomenon in higher education all over the world. But how did rankings achieve this status? To address this question, we bring in a historical-sociological perspective and conceptualize rankings as a phenomenon in history. We focus on the United States and identify the emergence of a specific understanding of organizational performance in the postwar decades. We argue that the advent of this understanding constituted a discursive shift, which was made possible—most notably but not solely—by the rise of functionalism to the status of a dominant intellectual paradigm. The shift crystallized in the rankings of graduate departments, which were commissioned by the National Science Foundation and produced by the American Council on Education (ACE) in 1966 and 1970. Throughout the 1970s, social scientists became increasingly more interested in the methods and merits of ranking higher education institutions, in which they would explicitly refer to the ACE rankings. This was accompanied by a growing recognition, already in the 1970s, that rankings had a place and purpose in the higher education system—a trend that has continued into the present day.

Students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing frame how they interpret their educational experience and their approaches to, and perspectives on, learning, teaching and assessment. This paper draws on previous research identifying the ways of knowing of undergraduates on entry to a UK post-92 university, findings from which confirm the prevalence of absolute beliefs in which knowledge is viewed as certain, uncontested and students are largely authority-dependent. Student perspectives on assessment and feedback are explored based on thematic analysis of student responses within two main categories of beliefs, absolute/dualist versus contextual/pluralist. The paper teases out the implications of these perspectives for students' satisfaction with their assessment and feedback experience in the context of today's increasingly market-orientated higher education environment. Findings demonstrate that student perspectives on, and satisfaction with, assessment and feedback are strongly intertwined with their beliefs on knowledge and teaching. Students holding absolute/dualist beliefs considered 'good' assessment and feedback practice to entail clear and unambiguous assessment tasks, criteria and standards along with the receipt of unequivocal and corrective feedback. The paper concludes that faced with assessment tasks that move beyond established facts and demonstrable theories it may only be students who view knowledge as relative and mutable that will likely be satisfied with their assessment and feedback experience. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

In this special issue, we analyze how societies in different countries have responded and continue to respond to the fact that the future is and has always been unpredictable and unforeseeable. The starting point for these studies is the recognition that the world situation is more complex than ever before due to current and foreseeable global challenges. The most serious of these threats and challenges are climate crises, natural disasters, and habitat degradation. To address the growing uncertainties arising from these challenges, societies around the world are placing increasing expectations on higher education and science, and are adopting proactive measures, such as various foresight techniques, to improve their preparedness and long-term resilience. In this special issue, we aim to provide fresh perspectives on foresight and preparedness for the future, especially in the Nordic context in the fields of higher education and scientific research. The special issue focuses on four Nordic countries-Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden-while maintaining a global perspective on the changes occurring around them. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

The paper deals with the future of Norwegian higher education as part of a Nordic project on higher education futures. To identify future scenarios for Norwegian higher education (HE), the paper uses the theoretical lens of historical institutionalism to focus on scenario building. Like in the other Nordic countries, Norwegian HE and research are characterized by easily accessible and free public HE provision, high participation rates, and a high level of investment in HE and research. However, the question is this: If we look back at the development of Norwegian HE the last decades, to what extent can we expect present developments to persist and to what extent can we expect more or less sharp breaks and deviations from past and present developments? Departing from an institutionalist position, two historically grounded visions and related scenarios are identified: an academic excellence scenario and a national service scenario. The scenarios reflect tensions between different visions of the shape, emphasis, and orientation of HE and research. The empirical focus is on the developments of HE along five dimensions: growth, systemic integration, academic drift, labor market relevance, and governance. First, the conceptual approach is presented, outlining the use of scenarios and an institutionalist approach to thinking about the future of HE. Secondly, the paper outlines the five trends regarding past and ongoing developments. Third, some ideas about future developments are outlined, before the conclusion is drawn. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Both the transformation from innovation systems to innovation ecosystems and university reforms in such a context require a renewed understanding of the nature of universities and their roles in society. While the recent flourishing concepts about new models of universities suggest that the notion of an entrepreneurial university needs to be replaced by a more suitable concept to capture the unprecedented changes in universities in the societal transformation, the features of a new model of university described by these concepts can hardly fit into a consistent framework. This paper responds to this research gap by integrating both conceptual and empirical literature about the transformations or reforms of universities, mainly in the European context. Our major research findings are as follows. First, we identified characteristics of an ideal-type university in innovation ecosystems, named a sustainable entrepreneurial university (SEU), in comparison with those of an entrepreneurial university. Second, we elaborated on three emerging roles of the SEU in innovation ecosystems. Third, we found that while a transition from entrepreneurial universities to SEUs can be seen in European university reforms, the paces of the transformations vary. At the end of the paper, we discuss the scholarly and policy implications of our research findings.

This article discusses how the critique of the monopoly of Western liberal thought through the decolonisation movement that was intended to increase the number of voices heard has been co-opted by nationalist politics in India and Russia. The debates in higher education in these countries reflect current key questions on the nature of the Indian and Russian nations-both under respective nationalist governments-where both are advocating a cutting off from Western modernity. Using Mignolo's concept of \"de-linking\" that was intended to raise up non-Western ways of thinking, the article shows that India and Russia have adapted and simplified decolonial discourse to reject \"Western-influenced\" critiques of development, inequality, and authoritarianism. Under political pressure from these authoritarian regimes, universities have helped to embed repressive majoritarian politics through anti-Western rhetoric disguised as de-linking, enabling democratic backsliding by discrediting opposition. This is done to protect a new identity based upon state conceptions of traditional values, paradoxically erasing minority voices that do not fit neatly into the unified national narrative. When universities are branded as Western agents for being critical of local traditions and schools of thought, the space for critical thinking and democratic debate is ultimately removed, leaving those who oppose Putin and Modi with no safe way to engage with political discourse, and this actually undermines the intentions of decolonial philosophy. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

The evaluation of research to allocate government funding to universities is now common across the globe. The Research Excellence Framework, introduced in the UK in 2014, marked a major change by extending assessment beyond the 'quality' of published research to include its real-world 'impact'. Impact submissions were a key determinant of the £4 billion allocated to universities following the exercise. The case studies supporting claims for impact are therefore a high stakes genre, with writers keen to make the most persuasive argument for their work. In this paper we examine 800 of these 'impact case studies' from disciplines across the academic spectrum to explore the rhetorical presentation of impact. We do this by analysing authors' use of hyperbolic and promotional language to embroider their presentations, discovering substantial hyping with a strong preference for boosting the novelty and certainty of the claims made. Chemistry and physics, the most abstract and theoretical disciplines of our selection, contained the most hyping items with fewer as we move along the hard/pure - soft/applied continuum as the real-world value of work becomes more apparent. We also show that hyping varies with the type of impact, with items targeting technological, economic and cultural areas the most prolific. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Drawing upon French philosophy, this study offers a novel empirical and conceptual understanding of the newly launched European Universities Initiative. In 2019, higher education institutions across the European Union created 17 new alliances as part of the first pilot phase of the initiative. This is an experiment in European and global higher education. This paper offers a conceptual contribution to the field of higher education studies, making use of a rhizomatic analysis to explore how university alliances build what the European Commission refers to as the ‘European universities of the future.’ Based on the conceptual reflection and findings from a small-scale empirical study, this paper concludes that the alliances within the European Universities Initiative rely on pre-existing higher education and research partnerships while at the same time experimenting to foster a diversity of institutional forms to achieve the ambitious goal of creating ‘European Universities.’