online, 22-23 APRIL, 2021
After a one year forced break caused by the COVID pandemic, the Central European Higher Education Cooperation (CEHEC) continues its annual conference series in 2021 with a free online event to be held on 22 and 23 April.
BACKGROUND
In 2014, CEHEC launched a new series of annual conferences co-hosted by the Center of International Higher Education Studies (CIHES) at the Corvinus University of Budapest and the Yehuda Elkana Center for Higher Education at Central European University (CEU), in collaboration with partners from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. To further expand and support interaction and networking between higher education researchers in the region, the Austrian Higher Education Network (AHEN) has joined Corvinus and CEU in co-organizing the 2021 CEHEC online conference as a strategic partner.
Each conference in this series brings together researchers, policy makers, university leaders and other experts in higher education from Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and from other parts of the world. The main aim is to stimulate scholarly and professional dialogue on current trends and key issues in the region’s higher education, as well as promote enhanced collaboration and experience sharing in higher education and science policies.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
22 April (Thursday)
(video recording of Day 1 plenary events)
14:00 – 14:10 Welcome and introduction
14:10 - 14:40 Keynote 1: Georg Krücken - Director, International Center for Higher Education Research (INCHER), University of Kassel, Germany: "Multiple Competitions in Higher Education – A Conceptual Approach"
14:40 - 15:10 Keynote 2: Marta Shaw - Associate Professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland and Adjunct Professor of Educational Leadership, Bethel University, US: "Climate crisis, identity crisis: Managing higher education in the Anthropocene"
15:10 - 15:20 Plenary speech: Elmar Pichl - Director General for Higher Education, Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, Vienna: - Universitas, liberty and autonomy - different, but united values
break
15:30 - 16:30 Paper presentations (in 3 parallel sessions)
Click for a detailed schedule of all presentations
Session 1: Internationalisation
Session 2: Academic freedom
Session 3: Academic work (1)
16:40 - 17:40 Paper presentations (in 3 parallel sessions)
Click for a detailed schedule of all presentations
Session 4: Quality in HE
Session 5: Quantitative studies
Session 6: Policy, management (1)
23 April (Friday)
(video recording of Day 2 plenary events)
14:00 - 14:30 Keynote 3: Dominik Antonowicz - Head, Department for Studies in Science and Higher education, Nicolas Copernicus University, Poland: "A participative model of the structural reforms in higher education"
14:30 - 15:50 Roundtable on the Crisis of Academic Freedom
(video recording)
Introducing the work of the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, our first public event gathers distinguished scholars to debate the key issues that have incited us to create the Observatory. Academic Freedom, as an empiric and an intellectual concept, is facing new challenges in all corners of the world and Europe, the West and the East, the Global North as much as the Global South. What is our modern day understanding of academic freedom and how can we, as academic community, respond?
Moderator:
Milica Popovic, Visiting Researcher, OSUN Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, CEU Vienna
Participants:
- Sjur Bergan, Head, Education Department, Directorate of Democratic Participation / DG Democracy, Council of Europe
- Nandini Ramanujam, Professor, Co-Director and Director of Programs of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, Faculty of Law, McGill University
- Michel Wieviorka, Professor, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
- Liviu Matei, Provost, Central European University, Vienna and Budapest and Director, Yehuda Elkana Centre for Higher Education
16:00 - 17:00 Paper presentations (in 3 parallel sessions)
Click for a detailed schedule of all presentations
Session 7: Digitalization, learning
Session 8: Third mission
Session 9: Academic work (2)
17:10 - 18:10 Paper presentations (in 2 parallel sessions)
Click for a detailed schedule of all presentations
Session 10: Policy, management (2)
Session 11: Learning
KEYNOTES
Georg Krücken - Director, International Center for Higher Education Research (INCHER), University of Kassel, Germany: "Multiple Competitions in Higher Education – A Conceptual Approach"
Currently, one can observe a strong increase in competition in higher education. This observation holds true for very different areas and national higher education systems. Individual and collective actors compete, for example, for scarce material and symbolic resources like research grants, high-quality publications, ranking positions, attention from external stakeholders or societal impact. As a consequence, universities as organisations and academics as individual actors are simultaneously embedded in different, nested, and interdependent competitions, i.e. multiple competitions. But what are multiple competitions, where do they come from and what consequences result? Multiple competitions are not simply ‘out there’, but are rather the socially constructed product that results from the dynamics and interactions of different social systems. The keynote presentation will develop some basic conceptual ideas on these dynamics and interactions and will highlight two issues: the implications of multiple competitions for creativity and innovation in higher education and the need for more international comparative studies.
Marta Shaw - Associate Professor, Jagiellonian University, Poland and Adjunct Professor of Educational Leadership, Bethel University, US: "Climate crisis, identity crisis: Managing higher education in the Anthropocene"
For the past decade, universities have faced an identity crisis prompted by the radical democratization of knowledge, the constructivist turn in epistemology, and increasing demands from nation states and supranational agendas for them to become engines of the global knowledge economy. Today, this identity crisis is exacerbated by accusations that higher education is complicit in the destruction of the human ecosystem. The keynote will present an analysis of universities' management strategies in the face of the climate crisis.
Dominik Antonowicz - Head, Department for Studies in Science and Higher education, Nicolas Copernicus University, Poland: "A participative model of the structural reforms in higher education"
Polish higher education provides a particular example of a system that, until very recently, has been largely reform‐resistant as it has a long‐standing tradition of bottom‐up ‘academic self‐governance’ at both the system and the institutional levels. This presentation explores the process of the structural reforms of the higher education system, commonly known as ‘Law 2.0’ (the original term being ‘Ustawa 2.0’). By doing so, it examines the process of policy formation that has been often advertised as a ‘reform different than others’ due to paying special attention to mechanisms of engaging various stakeholders (mostly internal) and an intellectual contribution from the academic community.
CALL FOR PAPERS
The call invites papers dedicated to the higher education sector in the CEE region, but relevant contributions from other regions are also welcome, including comparative studies. We expect conceptual, as well as empirical papers. Papers should be submitted in one of the following four main areas:
1. management
2. funding and governance
3. teaching and learning
4. research and development
SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION
The paper submission process is organized in two steps:
- Abstract submission (500 characters). Deadline 10 April 2021. Results of abstract reviews will be announced by 12 April 2021.
- Full Paper submission (deadline after the conference, 1 June 2021)
Abstracts can be submitted by filling in this abstract submission form.
Full paper guideline/template is available here.
Selected papers will be published in a conference proceeding.
REGISTRATION
Interested individuals may participate in all the events of the conference without submitting a paper for presentation. Please register online by filling in this form. Registration deadline: 15 April 2021
Registration to the event is free.
Registered participants will receive the link to the event in due time.
About Corvinus University of Budapest
Corvinus University of Budapest defines itself as a research university oriented towards education, where the scientific performance of the academic staff measures up to the international standard and the students can obtain a competitive degree having a standard and knowledge content identical to similar-profile universities and acknowledged on the European Union's labour market and on a global scale. The University admitting more than 14,000 students offers educational programmes in business administration, economics, and social sciences, and most these disciplines assure it a leading position in Hungarian higher education. At the same time, its key ambition is to display the institution's uniqueness and to exploit the synergies resulting from professional diversity and from studying multiple disciplines.
About Higher Education Research at Corvinus University of Budapest (CIHES)
The Center for International Higher Education Studies (CIHES) was established in May 2008. The Center is an umbrella organization for those researches who are teaching and pursuing research in various fields of higher education at different faculties of CUB. One of the goals of the Center is to join European research consortia and to contribute to their results in the analysis of the educational processes with suggestions and proposals. Research topics include: analysis of the three-cycle system and the introduction of Bologna-type study programs, internationalization of higher education, mobility in higher education, funding reforms in higher education, social dimension of higher education, pedagogical methods, quality assurance, institutional management.
About CEU
Central European University is a graduate-level “crossroads” university where faculty and students from more than 150 countries come to engage in interdisciplinary education, pursue advanced scholarship, and address some of society’s most vexing problems. It is accredited in United States, Austria and Hungary, and offers English-language Master's and doctoral programs in the social sciences, the humanities, law, management and public policy. Located in Central Europe – Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary -- CEU has developed a distinct academic and intellectual focus, combining the comparative study of the region's historical, cultural, and social diversity with a global perspective on good governance, sustainable development and social transformation.
With over 1,450 students and 370 faculty members from more than 130 countries, CEU is one of the most densely international universities in the world. Its rare mix of nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures creates an ideal environment for examining such “open society” subjects as emerging democracies, transitional economies, media freedom, nationalism, human rights, and the rule of law. It also brings multifaceted perspective to all aspects of community life.
About the Yehuda Elkana Center for Higher Education at CEU
The Yehuda Elkana Center for Higher Education, named after the third President and Rector of the University, is a collaborative academic initiative promoting applied policy research and professional training in higher education. The Center builds on more than two decades of experience at CEU in promoting policy research in higher education, as well as policy advising and professional development programs for governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and higher education institutions from countries on all continents. The Center also builds on the long history of cooperation between CEU and the Higher Education Support Program (HESP) of the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
The Center is committed to pursuing the overall open society mission of CEU through activities in the area of higher education policy. The Center places a particular focus on applied studies and practical initiatives regarding the relationship between higher education policies and practices, and issues of democratic development. Research, training, and applied policy projects are carried out by staff of the center, CEU faculty members, researchers, and graduate students in cooperation with higher education experts from other universities and organizations worldwide.
About the Austrian Higher Education Research Network (AHERN)
The Austrian Higher Education Research Network consists of HEI researchers working in Austria. It acts independently, interdisciplinary and openly for all those who conduct research on university topics and contribute to further development at the system, institutional or actor level.
The research goes beyond the analysis of one's own institution, e.g. through overarching reflection and interpretation, and is published and presented at scientific conferences.
The aims of the network are to connect individuals and institutions and to increase the visibility and usefulness of university research in Austria. On a more practical level the network supports higher education policy makers, the HE management and administration. Furthermore, it facilitates scientific discourse and promotes the research of young scientists.
