Dear Colleague

We are pleased to invite you to the next in this seminar series which aims to stimulate debate between researchers, those engaged in policy and practice in higher education and representatives of civil society.

                       Higher Education Reform in the Atlantic Isles
                       Professor Sir Peter Scott, Institute of Education, London

                      Monday 16 May 2011
                      12.00 to 14.00 (Tea & coffee served from 11.30)
                      The Helix, DCU

The main speaker for this event is Sir Peter Scott, Professor of Higher Education, Institute of Education, London.

Professor Sir Peter Scott was Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University from January 1998 to December 2010. Previously he was Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Education at the University of Leeds. He was also the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies in Education and Chair of UALL (Universities Association for Lifelong Learning). From 1976 to 1992 he was Editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement. Before that he was a reporter and then a leader writer for The Times. In January 2011 Professor Sir Peter Scott joined the Institute of Education as Professor of Higher Education Studies.

Professor Scott will present a lecture entitled 'Higher Education Reform in the Atlantic Isles' (abstract below). This will be followed by an open discussion chaired by Professor Maria Slowey, Director of Higher Education Research, DCU, with participants and expert panellists Professor Mike Grenfell, Chair (1905) of Education and Head of School, Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Mary Canning, previously of the World Bank Higher Education Division and Professor Richard O'Kennedy, Vice-President for Learning Innovation, DCU and current Chair of the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to interested colleagues. There is no fee for attendance, but booking is required as places are limited to facilitate discussion. A light lunch will be provided. RSVP to: [email protected].

I look forward to seeing you on Monday16 May

Best wishes
Maria Slowey

Professor Maria Slowey AcSS
Director, Higher Education Research and Development
Office of the Vice-President for Learning Innovation
Dublin City University

Higher Education Reform in the Atlantic Isles
Professor Sir Peter Scott, Institute of Higher Education, London
Monday 16 May, 2011: 12.00 to 14.00, The Helix, DCU

ABSTRACT

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - and also the Republic of Ireland - are all grappling with the reform of higher education in the difficult context of deficit reduction and cuts in public spending. At root they all face the same problem, how to fund mass higher education in a post-welfare state environment. However the ideological context differs, even among the constituent nations of the United Kingdom. England has been following the most avowedly 'market' road - although the Browne committee's recommendation and the Government's subsequent proposals have run into a number of roadblocks which they have yet to circumvent. Scotland and Wales are struggling to maintain more of a 'social democratic' position, with the Republic somewhere in the middle. In my talk I will review the various reform initiatives, and key reports, and attempt to distinguish between the underlying dilemmas that are common to all and the particular solutions that are being adopted in the five countries. I will end by looking more broadly to other European and world higher education systems and discuss whether it is possible to devise general theories of 'modernisation' / 'marketisation' / decline in early 21st-century higher education.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN CHALLENGING TIMES: QUESTIONING THE UNQUESTIONED is a lecture series organised by the Higher Education Research Centre (HERC) at DCU and co-sponsored by the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA) and the Higher Education Authority. For further information and seminar updates please visit our blog: http://hercdcu.blogspot.com/