In recent years, new expectations have been placed on universities, demanding academic contributions towards solving large-scale, interdisciplinary challenges. This is in conflict with existing insights from university governance research, which emphasises that scientific communities focus on reproducing disciplinary practices that are unsuitable…

The case study profiles the Aiku Centre at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, Italy, suggesting its role as a contemporary higher education institution committed to fulfilling its 'third mission' and addressing broader societal challenges. The Aiku Centre integrates artistic interventions with academic research and organizational practices,…

The new degree in the Global Digital Humanities has been launched by the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Mondragon University on its new urban campus of Bilbao AS Fabrik. In a time of increasing urbanisation, universities must reflect on their relationship to surrounding cities and regions and develop ways to incorporate the urban and…

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) merges the physical, digital, and biological spheres, reshaping societies and individuals worldwide in unprecedented ways. With the fast-moving globalization and rapid rate of technological development of the 4IR, the world is also facing unprecedented social, economic, and environmental challenges. As the…

Incorporating civic engagement in the undergraduate curriculum has become a goal in higher education generally and the communication discipline specifically. Given this emerging priority, we offer a framework that integrates civic engagement in the communication classroom and meets students and instructors needs, experience, and goals. Drawing on…

This paper conceptualises one possible antidote to the conditions that produce public mass gun violence (PMGV) in the United States. I begin by illuminating how PMGV is a backlash to the nation's 'founding' on the violent divisions of colonisation and coloniality. I then inquire: If PMGV is a reflection of a deep societal wound, what methodologies…

Three decades have passed since approximately 1,700 scientists signed the "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" highlighting severe environmental problems and trends affecting local and global communities. To reverse the situation, their 1992 Warning argued we need to change our behaviour. In 2017, a larger group issued a second…

This case study explores how a problem-based learning (PBL), graduate education course could be organized in ways that utilize the current knowledge of how people learn within diverse, real world community settings. Students were asked to identify an educational enterprise and a social problem within a culturally diverse, high-need community.…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are drivers of social change embedded in a society which is experiencing increasingly complex and multifaceted crises. This is partly attributable to the use of conventional and deterministic problem-solving curricula. A combination of a transdisciplinary approach and indigenous knowledge (IK) as transformative…

Since its establishment in 1974, Aalborg University has aimed to deliver cutting-edge research and innovative practices in engineering education. However, increasing complexity related to rapid developments in digitalization and emerging societal challenges offer new opportunities, requirements, and expectations across disciplines for educational…

This issue's theme is "shifting paradigms" in family and consumer sciences (FCS) professional practice. This can mean that things in the world are moving around and changing, people are moving from one way of seeing the world to another, or some combination. The question posed for this issue was "What is FCS doing and how is what…

Stigma and prejudice are barriers to developing policies addressing homelessness. Awareness development, using civic hackathons, may be beneficial in reducing stigma and promoting policy while offering unique training to social work students. The current study explores the feasibility of hosting a university-based homelessness hackathon;…

"New Directions of STEM Research and Learning in the World Ranking Movement: A Comparative Perspective" illustrates new directions of STEM higher education from the perspective of twenty-first century types of learning outcomes and focuses on need for developing an interdisciplinary approach to STEM higher education reform. It provides…

This article outlines the features and application of a set of model curriculum materials that utilize eco-democratic principles and humanities-based content to cultivate critical analysis of the cultural foundations of socio-environmental problems. We first describe the goals and components of the materials, then discuss results of their use in…

College and university educators seek to increase student engagement in learning content, skills, and applications. To achieve this goal, we used transformative teaching techniques in the design of a World Challenge: a two-week, group-based, reflective course for sophomores leading their own learning in developing creative solutions to the problem…