Abstract
Keynote Title: Realising the Ecological University: A Feasible Utopia
1 October 2024 — 9:20 am to 10:15 am
The university is not just encircled by but is entangled with several major ecosystems of the world and, whether recognized or not, the university is influenced by them and negotiates its way through them. Eight ecosystems stand out in particular, those of the economy, knowledge, social institutions, learning, persons, culture and the natural environment.
The ecological university is a university that takes this ecological setting seriously, and does what it can not just to be sensitive to those eight ecosystems but plays its part in improving each of them - for, being ecosystems, they each fall short of their potential.
It is a matter of judgement for any university as to how it might do this, in its teaching, its research and its engagements with the world. Each university has its own ecological profile – its own possibilities. Discerning its responsibilities and possibilities is not easy – they are not just there but have to be imagined. There is no technological fix before the university.
At present, attention is given primarily to economy as an ecosystem. Some wish to play it up still further (being strong advocates of ‘skills’ for the economy); others - critics of neoliberalism and cognitive capitalism – wish to diminish it, for they believe that there is a neglect of the other (seven) ecosystems. The economy is important but it should not be privileged. Indeed, there is conflict between interests in the economy and in (the sustainability of) Nature.
In my talk, I shall address this situation and share some tentative thoughts as to how steps might be made in realizing the ecological university, with considerations in mind of teaching, learning and the student experience.
Workshop Title: Thinking about change &/OR Changing our thinking?
2 October 2024 — 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm
What is it to effect change in higher education? Are we rushing to change systems and processes without thinking them through?
For example:-
- The use of AI and Chatbot-type engines: many universities are embracing AI enthusiastically – but suppose there are grave risks here? There are many concerns in the literature about AI but are universities aware of those concerns? Are they addressing those concerns?
(When I receive a PhD thesis to examine, I have no way of knowing whether and the extent what I see before me has been generated by AI. But this is only one difficulty here.)
- What of critical thinking? Do we still prize it in higher education? What does it mean? How might it be a more prominent part of a student’s higher education? What kind of pedagogy does it call for? What kind of student experience does it imply?
- Some speak of learning for an unknown future but if the future isn’t known, how are we to prepare students for it? Does it call for a different curriculum or more fundamental changes – eg abandoning ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’? Again, what kind of student experience is necessary (for ‘learning for an unknown future’)?
- In my keynote, I speak of ‘realizing the ecological university’ – but just how might that be brought about (and across the eight ecosystems that I identify – knowledge, learning, the individual, culture, society, the economy, the polity and Nature). Is the ecological university just a utopia – OR is it a feasible utopia?
So before welcoming change, or at least alongside it, we may need to address our thinking on a matter. Fundamental change in higher education calls for fundamental thinking.
But what is it seriously to think in fundamental ways about our practices and policies in higher education – and to ensure that our practices and policies are imbued with that more fundamental thinking? So we need fundamental thinking about both:
- the matter in front of us AND about
- the change processes needed to do justice to that thinking.
Do we have space and time to think in higher education today? Can we make space to think?
I propose that, in this workshop, we work concretely on the four issues above and identity:
(a) key ideas, concerns, issues and even conflicts in each case and
(b) ways of doing justice to those ideas, concerns, issues and conflicts in our change processes; and change processes at the levels both of the university and the student experience.
Biography
Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at University College London Faculty of Education and Society, where he was a Dean and a Pro-Director. He has just stepped down as inaugural President of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society and is now President Emeritus of the Society.
Ronald has played a major part in developing the philosophy of higher education over the past 40 years, with 35+ books and hundreds of papers, and 150 keynote talks in 40+ countries. He has been cited over 30,000 times in the literature.
He has put several ideas and concepts into the higher education literature, including ‘criticality’, ‘supercomplexity’ and ‘the ecological university’.
He has received many prizes and awards. His very first book (The Idea of Higher Education, 1990) won a major international award, followed by several other book prizes. Other awards include the inaugural annual prize of the European Association for Educational Research for his ‘outstanding contribution to Higher Education Research, Policy and Practice’; an earned higher doctorate in education (University of London); and an Honorary Doctorate (Eastern European University). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences.
His latest book is ‘Realizing the Ecological University: Eight Ecosystems, Their Antagonisms and a Manifesto’ (Bloomsbury, September 2024).