Transforming academia: The role of education

Abstract

Scientific research is usually presented as the driver that provides progress and meaning to the academic ecosystem. Higher education on the other hand, is typically imagined as something that naturally follows scientific research. In the academic ecosystem, education often retains a more marginalized position than scientific research and in many of the predominant accounts of the academic ecosystem it is even neglected. As a result, higher education and teaching tends to be treated as duty work that retracts resources away from research. In response to such accounts the present article proposes an alternative perspective in which higher education can assume a proactive role that affects institutions’ research. The article presents a case that demonstrates how social scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, in response to new demands for autonomous economy within Danish universities, invented the controversial, yet successful, ‘Design and Innovation’ engineering program. Design and Innovation’s controversial curricular composition brought together: creativity, social awareness, and product innovation and heralded the salvation for the declining status of engineering in Danish higher education. The article contributes to contemporary discussions on transformations within the university system by illustrating educational development as a transformative practice whereby the value and purpose of scientific disciplines get rearticulated in conversation with contemporary understandings of social needs.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• engineering education
• reform
• innovation
• sociotechnical imaginaries
• co-production

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all teachers of the Design and Innovation program who have contributed to this article.

Notes

1 Jasanoff, “Designs on Nature,” 2011.

2 http://ufm.dk/uddannelse-og-institutioner/statistik-og-analyser/sogning-og-optag-pa-videregaende-uddannelser/grundtal-om-sogning-og-optag/kot-hovedtal/hovedtal2012.pdf

3 http://www.information.dk/470336

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joakim Juhl

Joakim Juhl holds an assistant professorship at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark where he is the program coordinator for the Techno-Anthropology BA and MA programs. Juhl is a junior counsel member of the Science and Democracy Network and his research focuses on the normative foundations of technological innovation and its relation to social expectations of science. Joakim contributes to the National Science Foundation funded project, ‘Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation: The Practice Turn and Its Transnational Implementation’. From 2013 to 2015, Joakim held a joint postdoctoral position at the Harvard STS Program and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Joakim holds a PhD in STS from Aalborg University’s Doctoral School of Engineering and Science. He has a Master of Science degree in Innovation Management from the Technical University of Denmark.

Anders Buch

Anders Buch holds a professorship in technological expert cultures at Aalborg University Copenhagen at the Department for Learning and Philosophy. He has published articles and books on knowledge, learning, education, professionalism, and the professional development of engineers. He is editor-in-chief of Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies.