Universities are known for their cutting-edge research. How can that ethos be harnessed to enhance their educational offer, pedagogical approaches, technological innovation and approach to academic life? Future Ready Higher Education invites researchers, practitioners, and professionals across the sector to explore visionary and imaginative futures for universities.

This conference seeks to explore the multiple imaginaries of higher education looking ahead: how universities might evolve, what values could and should guide any changes, and how those who work (and study?) within it can help to shape what the future looks like so that it benefits them. It will provide the opportunity to share insights on developing cultures of lifelong learning; embracing and critiquing the role of digital technologies in teaching and research (including AI); and different conceptions of innovation and entrepreneurship for staff and students. Questions arise around the opportunities for and the nature impact of mobility of staff and students, principles of sustainability, and the future knowledge, skills and attributes needed by and expected of students. Fascinating research opportunities emerge through making connections between data sources, harnessing and integrating generative AI productively and responsibly,  developing partnerships across disciplines and introducing methodological innovation.

Through critical, creative, and research-informed dialogue, this conference aims to move beyond reaction to technological and political trends to authentic change, to a more proactive envisioning.  What questions need to be asked now to enable students, researchers, teachers and universities to create a future higher education they want to inhabit and which benefits everyone? The conference calls on participants to share research, theory, and practice that sees higher education as an ongoing space of creativity, inclusion, and purpose. By reflecting on what it means to be “future-ready,” we seek to collectively shape what higher education can become.

The SRHE conference aims to advance the understanding of higher education, support and disseminate research and practice, and provide a platform for the perspectives and knowledge offered by systematic research and scholarship. With an international membership which spans a broad range of the humanities and social sciences, the SRHE community includes researchers, students, policymakers, educational developers, professional services staff, and others with an interest in higher education. The SRHE conference acts as a space for broad-ranging knowledge exchange, exploration of productive pathways for collaboration, and dissemination of ideas in a variety of formats, across a range of research domains. In line with this, conference submissions that do not directly address the conference theme are also eligible for inclusion, and will be considered in full by staff and reviewers.