How is the pandemic transforming global higher education? How should universities address their respective national crises and contexts, while keeping true to their cosmopolitan mission and ethos? Can they do so while resisting the storm of hyper-nationalism spreading across the globe? How can an ecological model of the university help guide the transformation of higher education?
We explore these questions as part of a philosophy of higher education practice with Dr. Ronald Barnett, the world’s leading master scholar of the university. Dr. Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at University College London Institute of Education, where he was a Pro-Director and a Dean. He is a past-Chair of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE), and was awarded the inaugural prize by the European Association for Educational Research for his “outstanding contribution to Higher Education Research, Policy and Practice.”
He recently has been elected as the inaugural President of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society (PaTHES). He is one of the most important leaders in establishing the philosophy of higher education as a serious field of study. For nearly 40 years, he has been advancing a particular set of ideas, identifying creative concepts and practical principles to transform universities and academic life for the twenty-first century.