Student Agency And Self Formation In Higher Education

This edited volume argues for positioning students at the centre of higher education, drawing from the concepts of student agency and self-formation. The volume highlights that higher education has broader and more important purposes than what a neoliberal human capital approach would suggest, and explores how students exercise their agency and realise self-formation as inherently connected concepts throughout university education. With disciplinary, cultural, and contextual diversity, this volume will provide international perspectives to readers interested in higher education theories, policies, and practices.

Bringing together cutting-edge research from over 50 leading international scholars, this forward-looking Research Handbook offers theoretical and empirical insights into the student experience in higher education.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Despite the broad engagement of higher education institutions in most social sectors, limited thinking and hyper-individualistic approaches have dominated discussions of their value to society. Advocating a more rigorous and comprehensive approach, this insightful book discusses the broad range of contributions made by higher education and the many issues entailed in theorising, observing, measuring and evaluating those contributions.

This book sets out the theme of a world that is changing rapidly and higher education being an important agent in shaping that change through knowledge generation, transfer and innovation. The chapters in this book focus on this shaping role of higher education along a number of key areas: governance, sustainability, teaching and learning, student agency, quality and internationalization. From these different topics, this volume presents ways in which higher education helps dealing with and shaping the educational and societal changes that we are facing in the aftermath of the pandemic and challenges that we are expecting in the near future. Contributors are: Victor M. H. Borden, Bruno Broucker, Edel Cassar, Bárbara Coelho Gabriel, Cindy Cogswell, Julia Draghi, Brigitte Ecker, Pınar Eldemir, Klaus Feldmann, Cláudia Figueiredo, Anne Gannon, Jussi Kivistö, Manja Klemenčič, Theodor Leiber, Nandarani Maistry, Sara Moreno Pires, Takalani Muloiwa-Klenam, Darlington Mutakwa, Erna Nairz-Wirth, Ruaidhri Neavyn, Jessica Nooij, Mark O’Hara, Beate Pawle, Alexandra Polido, Maria Pöschl, Silke Preymann, Verena Régent, Lotte Scheeren, Kateryna Suprun, Robertt Valente, Floris J. N. van Berckel Smit, Annemieke van der Horst and Sabine Weiss.

Academic Quality and Integrity in the New Higher Education Digital Environment: A Global Perspective provides discussions on the work of three editors who have significant experience in the quality assurance of teaching and learning and have been developing approaches during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Discussions on learning and teaching during the pandemic were concentrated on how academic institutions ensure quality of courses, and that academic integrity is maintained in all assessments in a digital environment, thus ensuring what is being delivered meets global standards and professional bodies have confidence in programs delivered by the higher education sector. The area of quality assurance and academic integrity is thus critical in this new digital environment where significant educational programs will be delivered. Provides updates on what university administrators are doing to face challenges on how to maintain the quality of their programs during digital learning Addresses concerns on the quality of their programs and academic integrity is maintained at all times Proposes new practices and innovative approaches to bring to the attention of stakeholders in a central depository so that there can be informed approaches in institutions and in the set up of regulatory practices

Bridging the gap between higher education research and policy making was always a challenge, but the recent calls for more evidence-based policies have opened a window of unprecedented opportunity for researchers to bring more contributions to shaping the future of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Encouraged by the success of the 2011 first edition, Romania and Armenia have organised a 2nd edition of the Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers’ Conference (FOHE-BPRC) in November 2014, with the support of the Italian Presidency of the European Union and as part of the official EHEA agenda. Reuniting over 170 researchers from more than 30 countries, the event was a forum to debate the trends and challenges faced by higher education today and look at the future of European cooperation in higher education. The research volumes offer unique insights regarding the state of affairs of European higher education and research, as well as forward-looking policy proposals. More than 50 articles focus on essential themes in higher education: Internationalization of higher education; Financing and governance; Excellence and the diversification of missions; Teaching, learning and student engagement; Equity and the social dimension of higher education; Education, research and innovation; Quality assurance, The impacts of the Bologna Process on the EHEA and beyond and Evidence-based policies in higher education. "The Bologna process was launched at a time of great optimism about the future of the European project – to which, of course, the reform of higher education across the continent has made a major contribution. Today, for the present, that optimism has faded as economic troubles have accumulated in the Euro-zone, political tensions have been increased on issues such as immigration and armed conflict has broken out in Ukraine. There is clearly a risk that, against this troubled background, the Bologna process itself may falter. There are already signs that it has been downgraded in some countries with evidence of political withdrawal. All the more reason for the voice of higher education researchers to be heard. Since the first conference they have established themselves as powerful stakeholders in the development of the EHEA, who are helping to maintain the momentum of the Bologna process. Their pivotal role has been strengthened by the second Bucharest conference." Peter Scott, Institute of Education, London (General Rapporteur of the FOHE-BPRC first edition)

This handbook brings together scholarship from various subfields, disciplinary traditions, and geographic and geopolitical contexts to understand how student voice is operating in different higher education dimensions and contexts around the world. The handbook helps not only to map the range of student voice practices in college and university settings, but also to identify the common core elements, enabling conditions, constraints, and outcomes associated with student voice work in higher education. It offers a broad understanding of the methodologies, current debates, history, and future of the field, identifying avenues for future research.

Democratic institutions and laws are essential, but they cannot bring about democracy on their own. They will only function if they build on a culture of democracy, and our societies will not be able to develop and sustain such a culture unless education plays an essential role. Student engagement is crucial: democracy cannot be taught unless it is practised within institutions, among students and in relations between higher education and society in general. This 20th volume of the Council of Europe Higher Education Series demonstrates the importance of student engagement for the development and maintenance of the democratic culture that enables democratic institutions and laws to function in practice. This volume covers three aspects of student engagement that are seldom explored: its role in society through political participation and civic involvement; its place in higher education policy processes and policy-making structures; and how student unions represent the most institutionalised form of student engagement. The authors are accomplished scholars, policy makers, students and student leaders.