GUNI - 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education: “Let’s Build Transformative Knowledge to Drive Social Change”

The  Global  University  Network  for  Innovation  (GUNi) [1]  wants  to  focus  its  conference  on Knowledge, Engagement & Higher Education with the conviction that the greatest challenge of higher education in next decades consists in putting the knowledge at the service of social transformation.

The goal of the conference is to approach the challenge of engagement by higher education institutions in the larger society in an integrated manner: exploring ways in which engagement enhances teaching, learning and research; approaching engagement in ways that accept the multiple sites of knowledge creation, as well as the reciprocity and mutuality in learning. In exploring this issue, the Conference will attempt to describe how university‐community engagement is evolving nowadays.

The first aim of the Conference is to call upon policy‐makers, leaders and practitioners of HEIs around the world to ‘rethink’ social responsibilities of higher education and to become a part of a hub of societal innovation. We aim to move towards a more just, equitable and sustainable planet over the next decades. Thus, the Conference hopes to present experiences and ideas that suggest directions for transformation of higher education (and its diverse institutions) to exercise its social responsibility to citizens and societies locally and globally.

The second aim of the Conference is to provide visibility and to critically examine one of the most significant trends in higher education over the past 10‐15 years: the growth of the theory and practice of engagement as a key feature in the evolution of higher education.

The Conference will provide a space for:

• Presenting and discussing a current territorial and thematic map about how higher education institutions are advancing in engagement with society in the different world regions. Presenting  initiatives  on  different  practices,  mechanisms and  structures.  Showing differences and     similarities     within     the     several     world     regions,     and     illustrating peculiarities among countries.
• Deepening the current analysis on the relationship between knowledge, engagement and higher education. Advancing community university engagement around the world.
• Debating how higher education institutions can go beyond the third mi ssion and foster the integration of  community  university  engagement  in  teaching,  resea rch  and  institutional activities, through the presentation of experiences and poster sessions.
• Discussing on how higher education institutions can foster their link w ith their community at local, national, regional and global levels, giving an answer to society’s needs.
• Presenting the latest research that analyzes worldwide experiences an d presents typologiesof engagement practices for improving the teaching and learning processes, the quality of research, and the response to society’s needs.
• Offering tools  for  higher  education  practitioners  through  examples of  good practices, innovations, relevant experiences, and/or projects to move forward community university engagement along with the opportunity of networking.
• Creating a forum for dialogue by working with international renowned experts, practitioners and networks on community university engagement to reflect analyze a nd share experiences. Gathering and disseminating the results of this work through the report “Higher Education in the World 5”.