bsrs 2024 COURSE

Creative Innovations in Higher Education

Colleges and universities across the world are evolving to better meet the needs of a changing society, seeking new opportunities through innovations in teaching, research, outreach, and governance. This course will explore and critique concepts and initiatives that promise to improve the effectiveness and relevance of higher education.

Photo:

Desola Lanre-Ologun on Unsplash

Main content

Course leader
David G. Hebert, Professor, Faculty of Education, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Bergen.

Course lecturers
Emily Achieng’ Akuno, Vice Chancellor, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST), Kenya.
Chetwyn Chan, Professor of Psychology, Vice President, Education University of Hong Kong.
Marianne Løkke Jakobsen, Founding member and project leader, The Global Conservatoire. Head of Department, Director of Global Engagement, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen.
Tom Are Trippestad, Professor of Educational Theory and Policy, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Yusef Waghid, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education and Acting Head of Department at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Abdul Quddus, Professor of Organization and Management, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Course description
How can higher education become more effective, relevant, and inspiring? This course is designed for future professors and university leaders who intend to generate sustainable improvements.

Sometimes higher education is seen as an “ivory tower”, distant from practical concerns, but many new approaches seek to cultivate universities that are more directly engaged with professions and local communities. Some initiatives that claim to be “innovative” come with risks and provoke debates about the proper balance between financial costs and educational quality, or between practical skills and holistic competencies.

Some forms of internationalization are effective while others merely have a superficial impact. We will critically examine examples of sustainable creative innovation in specific professional fields, such as the training of teachers. Our course will focus on foundational values, ongoing debates, and recent research findings, with the aim of discerning which creative innovations are most promising for the future of higher education.