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This module introduces students to the inter-disciplinary field of higher education (HE) studies, examining a wide range of topics and issues in global and historical perspective. Each week tackles a different aspect of HE and introduces key concepts for understanding and critically examining current issues and debates within the field, such as the historical elitism of universities, the rise of MOOCs and alternative degree providers, the dominance of international rankings in defining ‘quality’, the marketisation of HE, and the global surge in international student mobility. The module’s breadth reflects the intellectual diversity of the field itself, using sociological approaches to analyse issues of HE access and international mobility, philosophical and historical approaches to understand the functions of universities and their relationships to society, economic and organisational lenses to examine the outcomes and contributions of HE, and globalisation theories to interpret cross-border flows of students, academics, degree providers and knowledge, as well as their underlying geopolitics.Ìý

Teaching delivery:ÌýThis module is taught in 10 weekly lectures (1 hour each) and 10 weekly seminars (1.5 hours each).ÌýÌý

Indicative Topics:ÌýPlease note that this may be subject to change.

• What is higher education? An overview of the societal, economic, and political functions of universities worldwideÌý
• Historical overview of higher education and university models in global perspectiveÌý
• Elitism and access to higher educationÌý
• Governance of higher education (e.g. ownership, regulatory frameworks and rankings)ÌýÌý
• Financing higher education (e.g. comparative funding models, tuition fees and student loans)Ìý
• Graduate outcomes: public and private returns on higher educationÌý
• Students and society in historical perspectiveÌý
• International mobility of students, academics, and institutionsÌý
• "Global" higher education? (e.g. globalisation, regionalisation, and the emerging geopolitics of higher education)

Module Aims:ÌýÌý

This module aims to provide students with the following opportunities:ÌýÌý

• to build a broad and deep understanding of the societal, economic, and political functions of higher education in global perspectiveÌý
• to critically reflect on the relationships between higher education, institutions, students, and societyÌý
• to understand, analyse and assess contemporary debates and issues in higher education, and apply knowledge of various disciplinary approaches in educational research to the study of higher educationÌý
• to critically evaluate the merits and weaknesses of different lenses and theories in higher education, and apply this skill through academic writing and oral argumentationÌý
• to locate students’ selves within these debates and understand their own historic and contemporary roles as university studentsÌý

Recommended readings:ÌýÌý

While not a necessary pre-requisite, it may be helpful to browse some of the chapter titles in any of the following edited handbooks to get an overview of some of the debates and topics this module will cover:Ìý

• Deardorff, D. K., de Wit, H., Leask, B., & Charles, H. (Eds.). (2023). The Handbook of International Higher Education. New York: Taylor & Francis.Ìý
• Huisman, J., De Boer, H., Dill, D. D., & Souto-Otero, M. (Eds.). (2015). The Palgrave International Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-1-137-45617-5.pdfÌý
• King, R., Marginson, S., & Naidoo, R. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook on Globalization and Higher Education. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Ìý

Additional costs: none