Knowledge is now central to national economic competitiveness and to socio-economic endeavours concerned with inequalities and social exclusion, and in this context higher education is recognized as a core sector of national policy and strategy. Yet the changing pressures, directions and practices in relation to knowledge pose many challenges for higher education itself. How can and how should research and study programs within higher education align with wider knowledge dynamics? How can higher education prepare students in professional fields for different kinds of knowledge-intensive work practices? How can short term economic objectives for higher education be aligned with other kinds of knowledge objectives that have characterized universities and colleges, and with the intensified impact of global rankings? This book takes as its focus the core interest of higher education in knowledge, and takes as its object of inquiry the kinds of reconfiguration of knowledge evident in national policies and governance; and in the redevelopment and practices of a range of professional and academic study programs in higher education institutions in Norway and Australia. From these detailed accounts, the book demonstrates the complexity of knowledge as an object of policy and practice; the competing logics that may be evident within and between study programs and policies; and the different kinds of agents and drivers that are part of knowledge reconfiguration in higher education and that need further attention going forward.

Knowledge is now central to national economic competitiveness and to socio-economic endeavours concerned with inequalities and social exclusion, and in this context higher education is recognized as a core sector of national policy and strategy. Yet the changing pressures, directions and practices in relation to knowledge pose many challenges for higher education itself. How can and how should research and study programs within higher education align with wider knowledge dynamics? How can higher education prepare students in professional fields for different kinds of knowledge-intensive work practices? How can short term economic objectives for higher education be aligned with other kinds of knowledge objectives that have characterized universities and colleges, and with the intensified impact of global rankings? This book takes as its focus the core interest of higher education in knowledge, and takes as its object of inquiry the kinds of reconfiguration of knowledge evident in national policies and governance; and in the redevelopment and practices of a range of professional and academic study programs in higher education institutions in Norway and Australia. From these detailed accounts, the book demonstrates the complexity of knowledge as an object of policy and practice; the competing logics that may be evident within and between study programs and policies; and the different kinds of agents and drivers that are part of knowledge reconfiguration in higher education and that need further attention going forward.

In a context in which explicit attention to the curriculum has been sidelined in universities’ strategy, this book makes an argument for why curriculum matters, both in understanding the effects of unbundled online learning and more broadly. It takes up two particular curriculum issues which are amplified in an unbundled context: differences in the formulation of curriculum between disciplines and professional fields, and the extent these are recognised in university strategy; and the push for constructivist pedagogies, and its effects on curriculum construction. Since the onslaught of MOOCs in 2012, unbundled forms of online learning offered via partnerships with external online program management and MOOC providers have grown significantly across the university sector. There has been much debate about the implications of these partnerships but the focus has predominantly been on the engagement of students and their learning. This book takes a different and novel approach, looking instead at the effects on curriculum and knowledge. Drawing on selected case studies, the book reflects on how university leaders and academics engaged with MOOCs and other forms of unbundled online learning in the early 2010s, and the effects of these reforms on curriculum practice. It captures in detail the complex and difficult work involved in university curriculum making in a way rarely seen in discussions of higher education. And it generates new in-sights about some of the critical problems manifest in the ongoing moves to embrace unbundled online learning today.

This innovative Research Agenda critically reflects on the state of the art and offers inspiration for future higher education research across a variety of geographical, disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. It explores the impact of Covid-19, and the need to re-engage with the Global South and reconsider conventional paradigms and assumptions. Leading international contributors address a set of salient issues, ranging from research on macro-level themes to meso and micro-level phenomena.

The Research Handbook on the Transformation of Higher Education captures the complexities and paradoxes associated with higher education transformation. Drawing upon current empirical and theoretical scholarship, it identifies the drivers, actors, developments and outcomes of transformational processes within the field.

This multidisciplinary book brings together scholars from Norway and the UK to discuss the notion of trust within the structures and forms of higher education located in two distinctive localities. The meaning of trust is multi-variant and nuanced, but is omnipresent in the literature on higher education ranging from student engagement to policy exhortations. A key feature of this book is the effort to integrate the term ‘trust’ conceptually, functionally and phenomenological more generally as well as within the context of higher education. Practice from within Norway and the UK is used to illustrate and expose relevant similarities and varieties in trust and the (possible) lack of it within the sector. The book thus faces the complexity of trust and its distinctive manifestation through a number of analytical lenses and realities.

The world's systems of higher education (HE) are caught up in the fourth industrial revolution of the twenty-first century. Driven by increased globalization, demographic expansion in demand for education, new information and communications technology, and changing cost structures influencing societal expectations and control, higher education systems across the globe are adapting to the pressures of this new industrial environment. To make sense of the complex changes in the practices and structures of higher education, this Handbook sets out a theoretical framework to explain what higher education systems are, how they may be compared over time, and why comparisons are important in terms of societal progress in an increasingly interconnected world. Drawing on insights from over 40 leading international scholars and practitioners, the chapters examine the main challenges facing institutions of higher education, how they should be managed in changing conditions, and the societal implications of different approaches to change. Structured around the premise that higher education plays a significant role in ensuring that a society achieves the capacity to adjust itself to change, while at the same time remaining cohesive as a social system, this Handbook explores how current internal and external forces disturb this balance, and how institutions of higher education could, and might, respond.