Higher education seems to be in a perpetual state of 'crisis'. The many hundreds of books and papers containing this specific, or other relevantly similar expressions, convey a sense of fear and angst. Yet, what are these various crises about, and which values and beliefs are seen as threatened or 'under attack'? This paper will provide an…

The literature on higher education includes a substantial genre devoted to the theme of crisis. While higher education is not alone in this, higher education researchers and writers all too often reach for the language of crisis to describe what they are experiencing or finding. Crises are identified at institutional, disciplinary, national and…

Institution-wide curriculum change is a costly, time-intensive and politically fraught undertaking. It is a challenge identifying who has responsibility for the curriculum and who is empowered to change it. The unbundling of the traditional tri-partite academic role of teaching, research and service leaves a gap of who in those communities decides…

The assetisation of education explicates a major shift in how the state understands education. Education is not only an immaterial public good available to everybody but can be treated also as a promotable group of assets. This article discusses the case of a certain period in the Finnish education export. The analysis shows how the Finnish state…

Changing student demographics, COVID-19 ramifications, and political pressures all underscore the need for organizational change sooner rather than later. While higher education has successfully resolved a number of challenges, it continues to be stymied by areas where needed change has not materialized. Even after repeated efforts, these changes…

China's higher-education system has been shaped in recent years by a trio of factors: the COVID-19 pandemic, the ambitions of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to make his country into an innovation superpower that is loyal to the Communist Party, and western alarm about those ambitions. But a fourth development, the slowing of China's formerly…

The turn to democracy in South Africa brought hope for a higher education sector that would play a key role in tackling racial inequalities and injustices. However, transformation promises ended up being largely smokescreens for maintaining entrenched racist and capitalist logics rooted in colonialism and apartheid. Instead of focusing on…

This article explores introduced tenure bans, meaning state-level legislation proposing eliminating tenure protections within all or part of a public higher education system. We describe such bills 2012-2022 and explore state-level political, economic, social, and higher education conditions associated with introducing a tenure ban. Tenure bans…

The paper examines Kazakhstan's decision to join the Bologna Process (BP), its implementation, and its impact on the higher education system in the country. Many post-Soviet countries have joined the BP, while many developing countries are also aligning their higher education systems with it. A diverse body of literature attempts to address the…

One major aspect of interest in Filipino philosophy is education. Reflecting on the nature, aims, and problems of education, Filipino philosophy of education investigates philosophical issues and emerging trends of philosophical thinking in education which are distinctive to the Filipino context. Filipino philosophy of education has a rich…

The continued erasure of place and politics from modernity's education systems and disciplinary knowledges perpetuates racialised and ecological injustices and extractive relations. In this paper I affirm the necessity of using evolving methods of critical place inquiry and relocalisation in higher education to redress these erasures. I illustrate…

Based on the higher education reform experience in Taiwan, this research elucidates the conditions for the marketization of universities. It draws on critical discourse analysis to explore power relations between higher education, society, and the government and suggests that the university has always been considered a valuable resource for state…

This chapter aims to explore the novelty and utility of political economy discourse, termed "neo-statism," as an analytical lens for comparative research in higher education. Analysis is framed within the context of Hong Kong's transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China's sovereignty, and its shifting…

Strategic reset is the process of reassessing an institution's strategic priorities, making changes if warranted, and assessing whether the institution can effectively engage and respond to any "zeitgeist" in the future through agility, flexibility, innovation, and responsiveness to all key stakeholders. The prerequisite for strategic…

This study examines the contribution of university educators toward prefiguratively creating tomorrow today in the higher education classroom. Educators often teach for peace and social justice through a variety of normative pedagogical frameworks. Yet, this linkage of pedagogy and prefigurative politics in university classrooms is frequently…