Confronting horror, embracing fantasy: A conversation about Lovecraft Country and radical imagination in higher education

2022 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85
Author(s):  
Jordan Harper ◽  
Henry Jenkins

Higher education is at a pivotal point of reflection due to the forces of neoliberalism, anti-Blackness, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, higher education has overlooked the university’s far future, opting to focus on readily conspicuous change. Along with this disregarded conversation, these crises present higher education faculty, administrators, and staff an opportunity to critically re-think the future of higher education given what we know now and what we do not. In this dialogic essay between a higher education policy doctoral student and a tenured media and communications professor, the authors peer into the hit HBO series Lovecraft Country and its underlying themes of horror, fantasy, and historical reality to extract vital lessons for higher education. The authors further participate in conversations about utilizing world and storymaking tactics to help higher education envision the university of the future—a future that is radical and boundless.

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Van Wyhe

Where we have been can tell us a great deal about where we are going. If we wish to direct the future, then understanding the past can help us see how much we actually influence that direction. Ignorance of the past, on the other hand, allows unrealistic expectations and creates unnecessary frustration. The history of accounting higher education in the United States is most informative for anyone who wants to influence the future direction of our profession. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the history of accounting higher education in the U.S., from its beginnings to its settled position in the university. This historical overview informs us that the profession of public accounting had everything to do with establishing and growing accounting education. Around the time of the Second World War, however, forces were set in motion that would try to pull accounting education from the grasp of public accounting. The belittling of public accounting, first in the name of the new management accounting and then by the Foundation Reports, combined with public accounting leaders' ongoing desire for a five-year education requirement above all other educational reforms, resulted in accounting higher education's inability to single-mindedly identify its goals and work toward them.


2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben W. Ansell

Higher education policy has been subject to considerable reform in OECD states over the past two decades. Some states have introduced tuition fees, others have massively increased public funding for higher education, and still others remain in stasis, retaining the elitist model with which they began the postwar era. This article develops the argument that higher education policy in the OECD is driven by a set of partisan choices within a trilemma between the level of enrollment, the degree of subsidization, and the overall public cost of higher education. The author develops a formal model of the micromechanisms underlying movements within this trilemma, noting the importance of partisan politics, existing enrollment, tax structure, and access. These propositions are tested statistically on a sample of twenty-two OECD countries and through case histories of higher education reform in England, Sweden, and Germany.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Funda Seyfeli ◽  
Laura Elsner ◽  
Klaus Wannemacher

The expert survey "Digitales Sommersemester" focuses on the medium-term consequences of the corona pandemic for studies and teaching. On the basis of multi-perspective surveys among students, lecturers and employees of support institutions, a differentiated picture of the university in shutdown is created. The study reveals the university‘s ability to react quickly during the crisis, as well as the many challenges posed by the pandemic-related ‚operational disruption‘ and abrupt digitalization in the summer semester of 2020. Based on a stakeholder-specific analysis of key problems and the need for action in higher education policy, the study provides a brief outlook on a post-corona university.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Janja Komljenovič

The contemporary economic imaginary of the ‘knowledge-based economy’ is changing the perception of higher education in Europe. The goals of higher education are changing and reform of institutions is predicted. The present article examines these reforms and conceptualisations of higher education by presenting the results of discourse analysis of 47  international policy documents at the European level and two comprehensive national strategies of the Republic of Slovenia for higher education, research and innovation. Based on the analysis of the European documents, the article suggests that two main discourses are constructed: a) ‘the research-based society and economy’, and b) ‘reforming the university’. These present the emergence of a new idea of higher education at the international and national levels. The article investigates the extent to which these discourses are present in Slovenian higher education policy. The findings show that Slovenian discourse hesitates to embrace them fully. In particular, the idea of the managerial university is marginal in Slovenian discourse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-154
Author(s):  
Valéria dos Santos de Oliveira ◽  
Rodrigo Rossi Horochovski

A Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) se mostrou uma das pioneiras na implementação da política de educação superior indígena, pois em 2004 já realizava discussões nesta temática, o que culminou na Resolução n. 37/2004 do Conselho Universitário (COUN). Considerando tal afirmativa, este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a política pública de ação afirmativa pelo viés da educação superior indígena na UFPR, considerando a atuação e experiência de uma Secretária Executiva nessa área e temática. Para tanto, realizou-se uma aproximação teórica entre os conceitos inerentes ao secretariado executivo, políticas públicas, ações afirmativas; política educacional superior indígena – específica de ingresso na instituição de ensino investigada. Na metodologia contemplou-se o Modelo de Múltiplos Fluxos, o Estudo de Caso e a abordagem da análise de conteúdo. O destaque foi dado à formação da agenda política, cotejando entrevistas com os gestores e informantes-chave da implementação da política na UFPR. Por fim, como resultado localizou-se a agenda nessa conjunção política considerando os elementos históricos e institucionais, a ocorrência da ação do governo no papel dos gestores da universidade, ainda a dos movimentos sociais, da comunidade acadêmica e verificou-se a mudança das ações políticas principalmente na gestão 2002/2006.   ABSTRACT The Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), proved to be a pioneer in the implementation of indigenous higher education policy, since in 2004, it already had discussions on this theme, that brought as a result the resolution number 37/04 of the University Council (COUN). Considering this statement, this paper aims to analyze the public policy of affirmative action by the bias of indigenous higher education at UFPR, considering the performance and experience of an Executive Secretariat in this area and thematic. Therefore, a theoretical approach was carried out between the concepts inherent to the executive secretariat, public policy, affirmative actions, indigenous higher education policy - the specifically of admission the educational investigated. In the methodology, we contemplated the Multiple Streams Models, Case Study and the Content Analysis approach. The emphasis was given to the agenda formation, collating interviews with managers and key informants of the implementation of the policy in UFPR. Nevertheless, as result, located the agenda in this political conjunction considering the historical and institutional elements, the occurrence of government action in the role of institutional managers, as well as the social movements, the academic community and there was a change in political actions mainly in the 2002/2006 management.  


Gerundium ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-126
Author(s):  
Gábor Ujváry

The Cultural Policy of Kuno Klebelsberg and the Higher Education. The study presents the higher education policy of one of the best known and succesful Hungarian Minister of Religion and Education (1922–1931) Kuno Klebelsberg (1875–1932). As a politician of a state dismembered to one third of her original size-a consequence of the war loss and the Trianon peace treaty-he became a minister in miserable economic circumstances. With the contribution of him the stabilization of so-called refugee universities (from Kolozsvár and Pozsony to Budapest and then to Szeged [1921] and to Pécs [1923], the Academy of Minery and Forestry from Selmecbánya to Sopron [1918–1919]) could succesfuly be managed. Because of his conservative-liberal political attitude he tried to ease the effects of the so-called Numerus clausus Acts of 1920 which made the university entrance for Jewish Hungarians extremely serious. In 1928 he achieved the modification of that regulation. Instead of Budapest he supported the development of universities of Debrecen, Szeged and Pécs as a consequence of his well-grounded education policy based on decentralization. With his higher education policy he made great contribution to preserve the pre Great War Hungarian higher educational capacity in a dismembered Hungary lost 60% of her original population.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-120
Author(s):  
Roger Severns

Like many states, Minnesota has incurred large budget deficits during the past two years. Those deficits have, in turn, led to changes in a number of areas of state government, particularly higher education. Faculty have incurred pay freezes and layoffs, programs have closed, and tuition increased. Campuses within the MnSCU system have been allowed to find their own way in dealing with many of these problems, with the result that some approaches have worked better than others. This paper will chronicle some of the problems encountered and solutions attempted, and will evaluate various strategies used within the system from the perspective the Faculty Association. The intent is to provide insight into identifying preferred strategies when addressing similar situations in the future.


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