This round table session is based on the development of the book University Futures, within the collaborative EU-funded project, Universities in the Knowledge Economy (UNIKE).

Universities across the world are being restructured and redesigned in order to cater for the global knowledge economy. The book explores the effects of contemporary reforms and transformations of Higher Education in Europe and the Asia-Pacific Rim. The contributors ask what is being lost through the economisation, entrepreneurialisation, internationalisation and marketisation of universities. Furthermore, arguing that this development is not inevitable, the authors ask, how we might use our critical research knowledge to formulate alternative ways of conceptualising and organising a university.  

The book is divided into six sections each addressing a specific theme. The first section is concerned with how governments are using universities and higher education in national policy agendas. The second section focuses on how the ‘internationalisation’ of universities creates new peripheries including the marginalisation of some countries and categories of people. The third section focuses on the ways in which the university activities are being marketised and the consequences of this for the core functions of research, teaching and engagement with society. The fourth section critiques the instrumentalisation of higher education and explores what an alternative ‘open’ education would look like. The final two sections focus on alternative ways of organising universities. The fifth section draws on feminist critiques of academic work and organising, to propose ways of constructing a ‘liveable university’. The sixth section draws on knowledge we have from one university organised as a cooperative and one based on an ideology of social change, with the purpose of proposing ‘alternative’ ways of conceptualising and running a university in the future.

Overall the book is structured along two dimensions: 1) From global processes to the internal life of universities, and 2) from critiques of the contemporary organisation and management of universities to future and alternative possibilities. The book concludes with a ‘declaration’ re-stating the public purpose of the university and discussing how to reformulate and reshape the basic characteristics of the university to equip them to act as a social as well as an economic force. This future orientation is especially important given increasing popular resistance towards the processes of globalisation, privatisation, the unravelling of the chimera of a global knowledge economy and their effects on universities. It is timely and important to re-think the principles on which a public university should be based and how to turn those principles into the organisation of a ‘liveable university’ as an active social agent in creating a fairer and more peaceful world for generations to come.

In this round table session each participant (representing different sections of the book), will offer a short presentation of their section findings. This will be followed by an overall discussion of the challenges and possible futures of public universities. Finally members of audience will also be welcome to ask questions and make comments. 

Wright, S. 'Likely and Desirable University Futures' in University Futures (forthcoming) Olds, K., Dang, Q. A., Gao, J., Lim, M. & Ørberg, J. 'National Universities and Global Order' in University Futures (forthcoming). Balaban, C., Westa, S., Custers, Masschelein, J., Amsler, S., Newfield, C. and Magalhaes, A. 'Market driven or open-ended education' in University Futures (forthcoming). Blackmore, J., Lund, R., Jonsas, K. et. al. 'The internal organization of universities: perspectives from feminist intersectionality' in University Futures (forthcoming). Greenwood, D., Boden, R., Butcher, C., Kontowski, D., Wright, S. 'Democratic Designs: Participatory organization of higher education'in University Futures (forthcoming). Newfield, C. 'Auckland Declaration on the future of the public university' in University Futures (forthcoming)