Editorial

It goes without saying that we live in interesting times. The transformation which we have been witnessing in higher education and research policy over the last decades is intensifying in response to the confluence of globalisation and geo-political issues.

The rise of nationalism and xenophobic populism – displaying slightly different characteristics in different places – pose huge challenges for higher education and research everywhere. The twentieth century bi-polar world, dominated by the US and Europe, is being severely challenged and up-ended by its multi-polar variant of which trade wars, Belt and Road and Brexit are just some illustrations. In many countries there is a growing mistrust of colleges and universities, amid concerns about elitism, relevance, employability, skills and fundamentally quality. There is a sense, in some countries, that higher education is too expensive for students, although it is also evident that governments cannot afford the full cost of high participation systems. The talent war emphasises the importance of internationalisation whereas countercurrents threaten the underpinning architecture required to enable global higher education and science.

Different questions are asked and demanded of higher education by a more diverse set of external stakeholders when more people are either participating or seeking to participate and more is expected of higher education. Given demographic changes, there are more diverse students, of all ages, seeking alternative models of provision and credentialing. Accusations of a divergence between traditional credentials and new skills requirements potentially posing an existential threat.

In many countries, issues of free speech and academic freedom are again high on the agenda. Adoption of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) signals a collective realisation that the societal challenges that we all face, and the data and infrastructure we require to understand and address them, are too great for individual researchers, universities or countries.

This too is changing the way in which higher education goes about its work, with implications for the role of higher education in society, and especially in its region, vis-à-vis global demands and the reputational desires of institutions. Governments are seeking an appropriate balance between university autonomy and public accountability; this takes different forms in different countries but it is clear that the traditional university model is being severely challenged, and not just by government. In return, managing systems and institutions, in an era of such change, raises big questions about strategic leadership capacity and capability as well as governance and organisational structures and management.

Is the current higher education system at the global and national levels sustainable in its current form? What is the role of higher education in the twenty first century? What changes are needed, and how best should academics, researchers, institutions and governments respond?

In the last issue of the Policy Reviews in Higher Education (Volume 3, Issue 1 March 2019), Hamish Coates, Consulting Editor of the journal, described eight tactics for writing papers that have an influence on decision-making on higher education policy (Coates 2019). He wrote about:

• selecting major policy problems that your article will help to resolve

• aiming to make a difference

• writing for, and maybe with, people engaged in policy work

• using ‘policy language’ and communicating directly

• writing about policy and developing the field

• concentrating on consequences

• referring to practice

• thinking how your article could be an instrument of change.

Many authors writing about higher education policy struggle to explain the implications of their research findings for policy-making, how the trends they have identified might influence the practice of decision-making or how the particular argument they are expounding – or critiquing – could change the way people in power think about a problem. This is understandable, because evidence or logic are seldom the sole basis for policy decisions, which are influenced as much by politics, ideologies, perceptions and personalities. Moreover, writers from academic traditions tend to be sceptics and more used to analysing and evaluating than proposing solutions for which the evidence may just not be available until they have been implemented. However, our aim for this journal is that it does make a significant contribution to making policy as well as understanding and scrutinising it and, as editors, we spend quite a lot of time encouraging potential contributing authors to seriously consider the policy implications of their evidence and ideas in their articles. This editorial focuses on this particular part of the writing process.

In one sense, this is the ‘So what?’ question. Why should policymakers pay attention to this erudite and carefully argued piece? If they did find time in their busy schedules to read it, what would you hope that they would do differently? Are you suggesting a different policy approach with a number of options, or a more significant shift in the lens through which policy – or a particular problem – is being viewed? Is there evidence of successful policy impact from elsewhere (other countries, other sectors, other parts of the education system, for example) that might be convincing to an equally sceptical politician? Is this new trend that you have identified really noteworthy, and why should decision-makers begin to take notice? Are the implications of a practical or pragmatic nature or are you raising ethical questions that ought to be addressed but that have been so far overlooked? Would you be willing to engage with those implementing such a solution, and to investigate how successful its implementation might be?

As Coates wrote, part of this is about the selection of the policy issue or problem at the outset. Does it tap into a concern that is already on the policymakers’ radar, or does it reveal an emerging development that will inevitably impinge on their consciousness at some point in the future? Put yourself in the politicians’ shoes for a moment and ask yourself what are their likely motivations and incentives: winning electoral votes, reducing costs, avoiding a crisis, copying success elsewhere or being seen to be proactive, for example. If the phenomenon is new and only just emerging, how will you persuade the policy advisers this is a significant trend that is likely to have a major impact in the future, and that they need to bring it to the attention of the decision-makers. You might even wish to propose pre-emptive action in order to curtail the development, if it is undesirable, or encourage it, if needed.

Thinking about a policy issue from this perspective before you start writing can help you to frame the question or problem in a way that may, ultimately, gain more traction with those who determine policy and strategy. But it also helps to start thinking about undertaking policy or evidenced based research from the start.

These matters concern and involve higher education researchers in the broadest way. Academics and scholars have a vital role to play in strengthening partnerships between universities and the wider research community and civil society in order to address persistent problems across society.

Thus, whether thinking about your research, writing it up or talking to policymakers about their priorities, consider the significance of the topic. To what extent is it addressing the real needs of society and government, and what impact would you like to have? Think also about what the consequences of your argument or revelations might be for who and how. However you go about it, at some point stop, and ask yourself ‘So what?’.

We are especially interested in receiving submissions across a wide range of topics, for example (in no particular order):

• Financing HE and the optimal balance between private and public funding

• Changing meanings of ‘public’ and ‘private’ in higher education

• Transitions within post-secondary education and implications for social mobility

• Access and the impact of HE on social mobility

• Distance and online provision

• Student engagement policies and practices

• Policy borrowing, adaptation and transnational policy flows

• The development of the PhD

• The academic profession, academic work and careers

• Social and economic development

• Research and science policy

• Private universities and colleges

• Developments in tertiary/post-secondary/post-compulsory education – policy choices, collaborations, etc.

• Demographics and changing role of HE

• Place-making and the influence of place/geography on HE (or its absence)

• Accountability and quality assurance

• Assessment policies

• Community engagement and citizenship education

• Cross border and off-shore provision including international branch campuses

The five articles in this issue of the journal embody the approach we are suggesting in several ways:

• Boopendra Seetanah and Viraiyan Teeroovengadum investigate the impact of higher education on national economies in Africa. They find that it significantly increased economic growth between 1980 and 2015 in a sample of 18 countries, but with a time lag. The effect was smaller than in developed countries and in comparison with the impact of primary and secondary education. The growth of tertiary education was also linked with increasing national income, education attainment and the level of openness.

• Lisa Unangst discusses possible implications of refugee student enrolment in German universities, and offers recommendations for policy initiatives. Key proposals include: revisiting the admissions system; expanding the existing student services model; emphasising an early focus on subject-specific language proficiency; emergency funds for small student expenses; the development of internships for refugee students; and support for student and staff collaboration and information sharing at both the state and federal levels.

• Globally, the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0) for a future-ready skilled workforce have placed significant political pressure on PhD programs to deliver different sorts of graduates. In their article, Tebeje Molla and Denise Cuthbert document the prevalent ‘skills gap’ narrative of global policy actors and, using a multi-scalar policy lens, examine global and national research-training policy debates and Australian institutional responses to calls to transform the PhD to make it more amenable to the new economic conditions.

• Maria Hinfelaar and Paul Hildreth address how universities contribute to regional development in a peripheral area outside the major conurbations using a case study of the North Wales Mersey Dee area, a cross-border region within the UK. A conceptual framework is introduced, linking triple helix working from a university perspective to models for place-based strategy and place-based leadership. They conclude by making recommendations for longitudinal studies in similar peripheral regions.

• Balancing excellence and diversity effectively in the higher education sector is one of the most challenging tasks for national governments. While a number of countries around the world have initiated university excellence schemes, it is more difficult to identify policy initiatives that also take into account how institutional diversity is to be enhanced simultaneously. Through analysis of the voluntary, and later mandatory, first–level discipline evaluation scheme in China from 2003–2016, Bjorn Stensaker, Xilu Dong and Peter Maassen argue that decentralised decision–making within a centralised evaluation scheme is an interesting governance approach for trying to balance excellence and diversity in higher education. However, institutional diversity is not necessarily positively correlated to disciplinary diversity.

If you missed previous issues, some of the most downloaded articles have been on the gender imbalance in senior positions in higher education, the influence of performance measurement on academic work, space and place in HE, the contribution of colleges to reducing social inequality, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), measuring academic freedom in Europe and, of course, rankings.

We look forward to receiving your review proposal.