CGHE 2018 annual conference: The new geopolitics of higher education

Programme summary

The Burton R. Clark lecture on higher education: Academic freedom and the future of Europe (keynote 1)

• Professor Michael Ignatieff, President, Central European University
• Welcome: Professor Michael Arthur, Provost, UCL
• Chair: Dr Dame Nicola Brewer, Vice-Provost (International), UCL

Academy freedom and university autonomy are under attack these days as the privileges of a professorial elite, but they should be understood as ‘counter-majoritarian institutions’ – like a free press and an independent judiciary – an essential counter-balance to majority rule. Across Europe, counter-majoritarian institutions are under pressure from populist movements and parties seeking to mobilise ‘the people’ against the press, the courts – and universities too. How do universities defend themselves? What arguments will convince a sceptical public? How do universities rebuild the public support they need in order to sustain their role as counter-majoritarian institutions?

The performance and role of Chinese higher education (keynote 2)

• Professor Nian Cai Liu, CGHE Co-Investigator
• Chair: Professor James Wilsdon, CGHE Programme Leader

China now has the largest higher education system in the world and is the second largest producer of scientific publications. The performance of Chinese research universities has been improving quickly according to major global university rankings, which is, to a large extent, the result of various national excellence initiatives. The latest of these initiatives, the ‘Double World-Class Project’, sets the goal of having a couple of dozen world-class universities by the middle of this century. This will have important implications for higher education and research across the world. In this presentation, Professor Liu will discuss the Chinese higher education system and the impact of its excellence initiatives. He will look at the performance of Chinese research universities and trends in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and explore institutional strategies to build world-class universities. He will also focus on the future development of Chinese higher education, particularly of its research universities and their global role.

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Student choice in higher education – reproducing social inequalities? (keynote 3)

• Professor Claire Callender, CGHE Deputy Director
• Chair: Professor Francis Green, CGHE Co-Investigator

A hallmark of much higher education policy in developed economies in recent years is the move towards marketisation. Policies in England and elsewhere have sought to increase provider competition and to promote student choice. Central to this are student funding reforms with the introduction of cost sharing policies, particularly higher tuition fees and student loans – global phenomena, which have fuelled higher education expansion. This paper explores governments’ rhetoric on student choice in England, especially in relation to student funding. It argues that policies introduced to promote and improve student choice first limit or constrain student choice, and secondly contribute to further social inequalities in higher education.

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Higher education and equality (panel discussion)

• Professor Vikki Boliver, CGHE Co-Investigator
• Dr Dung Doan, CGHE Research Associate
• Professor Rajani Naidoo, CGHE Co-Investigator
• Ben Whittaker NUS Director (Student Voice and Influence)
• Chair: Professor Ellen Hazelkorn, CGHE Co-Investigator

Education systems can be a force for social mobility, but they also reproduce and reinforce existing social divides. Despite much analysis and action, inequality in higher education remains stubbornly persistent. Many of the promises promoted by/about higher education, most notably upward social and economic mobility, are proving to be untrue, or at least untrue for too many. Much of the discussion around equity has been concerned with participation rates and programme quality rather than on ‘access to what’, growing stratification and differentiated levels of learning and success. This panel will discuss what we now know about equity/inequity in higher education and the outstanding big questions we need to resolve. The discussion will also focus on the responsibilities of higher education and whether there are realistic models of ‘good practice’ that have proven to work.

• Background summary