International Conferences on Higher Education Reform (HER)
Over twenty years, Higher Education researchers from various countries have organized annual international conferences on Higher Education Reform (HER). Seven of these took place at universities in North America (Canada [3], the US [2] and Mexico [2]), six in Europe (Austria, Ireland [2], Germany, Slovenia, and Scotland), and four in Asia (two each in Japan and China).
Themes: Conference themes covered various topics, ranging from internationalization and marketization to issues of institutional governance (see table below). Major papers from the workshops were published, either in the form of monographs, special issues of academic journals, or as individual articles or chapters. Conference organizers served also as editors, with occasional help from members of the international advisory group.
Participants: With two exceptions (Shanghai 2009 and Glasgow 2023) which had over 150, the number of participants was usually between 65 and 90 to allow for an interactive format. Participants included post-secondary education researchers, both professors and graduate students, as well as, in several cases, policy analysts and representatives of HE ministries or policy bodies. Over the years, some 800 people participated, many in several conferences.
Organization: The conferences were organized by local teams of the hosting institutions, headed by deans, department heads, or directors of HE institutes or centres. These organizers then became members of the International Advisory Board (IAB), the informal governing body of the HER Network.
International Workshops on Higher Education Reform (HER Workshops) Venues, Themes and Publications
| Year | Place | Main theme(s) | Publication of proceedings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Vancouver (UBC) Canada | (Paired comparison of) Reforms of Higher Education in Six Countries, various themes | Special Issue of Canadian Journal of Higher Education. vol 34 Nr. 3 |
| 2005 | Vienna (U Klagenfurt) Austria | Institutional diversity and system coordination; Collabo-ration with the private sector, | [Major papers on workshop web site (no longer available)] |
| 2006 | Tokyo (U Tsukuba) Japan | Structural Higher Education reforms in Japan and in various other countries | Special Issue of Journal for University Studies Nr 35 (2007) |
| 2007 | Dublin (DCU) Ireland | Innovations in Teaching and Learning | Special Issue of Journal of Adult and Continuing Education (JACE) vol 2 Nr. 9 |
| 2008 | Shanghai (East China Normal U), China | Internationalization of HE | Special Issue of Journal of Higher education (Oct, 2008) |
| 2009 | Mexico City (CINESTAV - DIE) Mexico | The Changing Roles of State and Markets in HE | Schuetze, H. G., & Alvarez Mendiola, G. (Eds.). (2012). State and market in higher education reforms Trends, policies and experiences in comparative perspective. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. |
| 2010 | Vancouver (UBC) Canada | Reform of University Governance | Schuetze, H. G., Bruneau, W., & G. Grosjean. (Eds.). University governance and reform - Policy, fads, and experience in international perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. |
| 2011 | Berlin (Humboldt U) Germany | Universities and Lifelong Learning | [Publ. together with HER 10 (Ljubljana) publ., 2015, 2nd ed. 2019] |
| 2012 | Pittsburgh (U Pittsburgh) USA | Community Engagement of Universities | W. James Jacob, Stewart E. Sutin, John C. Weidman and John L. Yeager (eds) (2015). Community Engagement in Higher Education - Policy Reforms and Practice. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. |
| 2013 | Ljubljana (U Ljubljana) Slovenia | HE Reforms: Looking Back - Looking Forward | Zgaga, P., Teichler, U., Schuetze, H.G., & A. Wolter (eds.) (2nd ed. 2019) Higher Education Reform: Looking back - Looking forward. Frankfurt/New York: Peter Lang |
| 2014 | Memorial U, St. John's, NL (Canada) | Higher Education and its Principal Mission: Preparing Students for Life, Work, and Civic Engagement | Archer, W. & H.G. Schuetze (eds) (2019). Rotterdam and Boston: Sense-Brill |
| 2015 | Tianjin (Tianjin Normal U) China | Policies and Practice of Quality Assurance and Control in Higher Education | Selected papers published in Frontiers of Education in China (Springer) 2018, vol. 13 no.2: https://link.springer.com/journal/11516/13/2 |
| 2016 | Dublin (DCU) Ireland | Wider Access, Changing Demographics and Migration: Implications for HE Reforms and Policy | Slowey, M. & Schuetze, H.G., Zubrzycki, T. (eds), (2020), Inequality, Innovation and Reform in Higher Education - Challenges of Migration and Ageing Populations. Cham (CH): Springer. |
| 2017 | Hiroshima (RIHE Hiroshima U) Japan | Assessing the missions of Higher Education: Performance, productivity, and pedagogies | Huang, F. & Oba, J. (eds) (2019), Special Issue, Research in Higher Education (Daigaku Ronshu), Hiroshima: Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima U. |
| 2018 | Baltimore (Johns Hopkins U) USA | Reinventing the public mission of Higher Education: Policies and practice | Papadimitriou, A. & Boboc, M. (Eds) (2020) Re-envisioning Higher Educations Public Mission - Global Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. |
| Sep. 2019 | Mexico City (CINESTAV - DIE) | Digitalization of Higher Education: Impact and Consequences for Policy | Alvarez Mendiola, G., de Vries, W. & Schuetze, H.G. (eds.) (2023). Special Issue of the Journal for Comparative and International Higher Education (JCIHE) |
| Jun. 2023 | Glasgow (Glasgow U) (This conferen-ce, planned for 2020, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic) | Sustainable Development Goals: Their potential and relevance for higher education policy and reform | Schuetze, H.G., Osborne, M., Zhang, R. & Adamu, A.Y.(eds.) (forthcoming). The role Higher Education can, should and actually does play regarding the realisation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Manchester University Press. |