There can be little doubt that the Higher Education sector in the UK is in crisis. Here I argue that at least some of the responsibility for this lies with changing understandings of the purpose of a university education. In turn I see this as driven by two separate phenomena. First is the massification of […]

Writing plays a central role in academia – it is a way of communicating ideas and a means for assessment (Evans, 2013). The latter function is the focus of this blog, given that it concerns the legitimacy of the ways in which our ideas are expressed. One can hardly find a piece of academic writing […]

In March 2023, the UNESCO Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education entered into force. Four months later, in July, the First Intergovernmental Party of the State Parties (COP1) of this convention was held at UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris. A Process Taking Over a Decade   These important milestones in 2023 are […]

Gale Macleod*   What one item represents higher education to you? This deceptively simple question is one the members of the Higher Education Research Group at the University of Edinburgh have been considering recently. In June we hosted an event where invited speakers shared their suggestions, and argued for the inclusion of their ‘object’ in […]