History

On Tuesday 9 December 2025, we hosted a special EERA Network 22 webinar on Zoom (online).

The webinar was entitled "Knowledge and Disciplines in Higher Education (HE) Research" and featured two guest speakers, Dr Felipe Sánchez Burgos and Vesna Holubek.

Discussing two projects, the event focused on the ideas of knowledge and disciplines in HE. Felipe discussed disciplinarity/interdisciplinarity of the field, their value and how they frame/enable its development. Vesna focused on the concept of knowledge—particularly educational knowledge—and the way it has been represented/researched in the HE research literature.

About 30 people attended the webinar. The presentations were of high quality and resulted in several interesting discussions, crucial issues were mentioned, and (not unusually) more questions than answers were provided.

Of particular note was the discussion about whether the field of higher education should be seen as disciplinary or interdisciplinary, and as a field of study or as an educational sector. Felipe argued that the disciplinary approach emerges most strongly during the doctoral phase of one’s career. Another issue that was raised concerns ‘epistemic agency’, and whether the distinctiveness of higher education as a discipline ensures its continuity. Felipe provided an interesting overview of the typically contradictory features of higher education as an interdisciplinary research field.  

Another triggering issue raised by Vesna involved the knowledge paradox, referring to ‘knowledge as both the most and one of the least discussed issues in academic debate, and knowledge blindness: the focus on processes of learning, and whose knowledge is being learned but not on what is being learned and how it shapes processes and power relations.

Many thanks to anyone who contributed to our session!

Felipe Sánchez Burgos is a Psychologist and PhD in Educational Research from Lancaster University, UK. He is a Lecturer in Educational Psychology at Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile. He researches in Higher Education; Faculty/Educational Development; Emotionality, Affection and the Arts.

Vesna Holubek is a HE researcher and a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University, Finland. Her research focuses on teaching and learning, internationalization, cultures, and communities in HE.

The special Issue "An international exploration of post-phd careers. Discussing the issues of employability and intersectorial mobility"was published in Studies of Higher Education in October and most papers are available on open access: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cshe20/48/10

"The role of diversity in bringing about organizational transformation of higher education institutions"

"Pedagogical Practices in Higher Education in the aftermath of Bologna Process "

Mariana Gaio Alves (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) took over from Christine Teelken (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands) after shadowing from 2020 - 2021. Christine Teelken remains active in Network 22 as Co-Convenor.

On the 27th of August a Network meeting was held in the morning, followed by more than 40 paper presentations and discussions around the field of higher education in the afternoon.

NW 22 held the “(Post) Academic Careers: PhD graduates and Employability in- and outside Academia" symposium during ECER 2018 and follow up seminars in Amsterdam and Hamburg.

NW 22 offered an EERA Symposium at the  International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education (AIESEP). EERA funded the conference fees for 3 researchers.

In 2010 Jani Ursin took over from Barbara Zamorski as new Link Convenor of the network.