Higher Education Research and Scholarship Group

Why Higher Education Research?

Whether we call it Higher Education Studies, Critical University Studies, or Higher Education Research, this is a hugely dynamic and rapidly expanding field of research and scholarship.

In the global field, transnational higher education, international student recruitment, and global rankings are changing what higher education looks like. The safety and security of international students in global higher education destinations have been challenged by a range of political, economic, and health-related factors, for example.

Who we are

Higher Education as a new research and scholarship group in MIE builds on the success of the Higher Education Research Network - HERE@Manchester. We are an interdisciplinary network of scholars researching and studying higher education from a range of international, critical, pedagogical, and policy perspectives. With over 60 members from a range of schools and departments across the institution and beyond, the network has functioned as an open and supportive space for developing high-quality research about higher education. We welcome affiliate members from institutions outside The University of Manchester. Please contact one of the core groups to sign up.

What we do

We organise regular events, including workshops, research seminars, invited speakers, reading groups, ‘in-practice panels’ and more. Please explore our Eventbrite collection for public events.

Our defining research agenda is to critically interrogate concepts, discourses, policies, practices, and pedagogies, and the connections between them, in the context of higher education. We focus on higher education in local, national, and international contexts.

Our work:

1. Identifies inequalities and injustices in higher education policies, practices, experiences, transitions and places;
2. Critically examines concepts and discourses of students, staff, institutions, and systems in higher education research, scholarship, practices, policies, media, and governance;
3. Develops and influences alternative ethical concepts, discourses, and approaches to practice in higher education.

Existing work has a broad and diverse range of project topics, from inequalities in STEM, to representations of international students, transnational higher education, critical internationalisation studies, university admissions and equity, leadership, learning gain, critical pedagogies, student engagement, graduate outcomes, indigenous methodologies, and much more.