Conference Theme

Inspiring future generations; embracing plurality and difference in higher education
Celtic Manor, Newport in South Wales, United Kingdom

One of the greatest challenges currently facing the higher education sector globally is how rapidly it can adapt to meet the needs and expectations of current and future generations of both learners and academics. It must seek to develop higher education experiences and outcomes that meet these demands; individually, collectively and globally.

Within the higher education research community we have the capacity, the history, the knowledge and the expertise to inform and shape the transformation of the higher education sector globally into an innovative, multi-faceted system; one with new and different sources of funding, with diverse modes of participation and one more responsive to the changing needs and expectations of people, institutions and societies.

We encourage presentations and discussions that explore both global and local perspectives as well as trends in higher education policies and practices. We also welcome conceptual and theoretical contributions that add to current discourses- or initiate new ones. Of particular interest this year will be contributions examining the increasingly diverse higher education landscape and how the processes of research, of knowledge production, knowledge-exchange, and knowledge sharing are changing in response to increasing plurality and difference within and across the sector.

This Conference offers the opportunity to explore what it will take to reconsider and refashion higher education provision to inspire future generations of both learners and academics and furnish them with the knowledge and skills required to transform their world, their societies and their life experiences for the better.