About

The GlobalHigherEd blog is edited by Kris Olds (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Susan Robertson (University of Bristol). GlobalHigherEd was established on 1 September 2007 and currently receives nearly 10,000 visits per month from people based around the world who are associated with a wide array of institutions (including consulting firms, credit rating agencies, foundations and funding councils, higher education associations, the media, ministries and associated development agencies, multilateral agencies, and universities), as well as members of the public.

The GlobalHigherEd blog is designed to highlight and then archive information about new developments (e.g., a new policy or development project), resources (e.g., reports, websites), analytical networks, and so on, so as to better track what is happening with respect to the construction of new globalized knowledge/spaces. We are interested in how and why new knowledge and new spaces (including socio-technical networks) are being developed in association with the emergence of the ‘knowledge economy’, and what the implications of this complex development process are, especially for global public affairs. Three examples of relatively territorialized knowledge spaces are Qatar Education City, Singapore’s ‘Global Schoolhouse’, and the European Higher Education Area, though even in these cases they are fundamentally dependent upon extra-territorial relations and linkages (e.g., see the Singapore-MIT Alliance). Examples of relatively more networked spaces of knowledge production include the Erasmus Mundus programme, and university consortia like the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) or the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). There are also a myriad of fascinating and rarely examined spaces of knowledge production (e.g., non-profit think tanks, private research centres and universities) such as Renaissance Technologies‘ 50 acre campus in East Setauket, NY, described in the Financial Times (”The billion dollar boffin”) on 27 April 2007 as:

as a cross between a university campus and the Pentagon, featuring a gym, a library, a tennis court and an auditorium that hosts academic lectures on topics with little connection to finance. On this campus, and at Renaissance’s office in Manhattan, Mr Simons and his army of PhD’s gather mountains of data on every conceivable security and futures contract and search for patterns, or “signals” that will tell them what is going to happen and when.

We used to bounce emails around about such developments titled ‘FYI’ but they always seemed to disappear into the ether! We hope that the GlobalHigherEd blog will act as an accessible archive of information about such developments, both for ourselves and also for other people (regardless of location or institutional base) with complementary interests. Given the archival function of this blog, and the nature of many of our subscribers (who cannot go ‘on the record’ without first vetting their comments), we are not expecting a lot of commentary and feedback though we always welcome it should you feel the urge.

Please note that the window of time regarding ‘new’ developments that we are working with is 1-2 months back from the date of the most recent entry on the blog, though there will inevitably be a considerable number of ‘new news’ updates too. Periodic ‘mini-analyses’ will also be developed on important themes and institutions. More generally it is our intention that GlobalHigherEd function as an open, inclusive, free and conducive space for thinking about the globalization of higher education.

The line-up of contributors to the blog include, apart from Kris Olds and Susan Robertson: Daniel A. Bell (Tsinghua University), Diana B. Carlin (US Council of Graduate Schools), Kimberly Coulter (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Barbara Czarniawska (University of Gothenburg), Roger Dale (University of Bristol), Kate Geddie (University of Toronto), Sotiria Grek (University of Edinburgh), Ellen Hazelkorn (Dublin Institute of Technology), Glen A. Jones, (University of Toronto), Peter D. Jones (University of Bristol), Sarjit Kaur, (Universiti Sains Malaysia), Lily Kong (National University of Singapore), Wendy Larner (University of Bristol), Jae-Youl Lee (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Patricia Leon (University of Surrey), Nick Lewis (University of Auckland), by António M. Magalhães (Universidade do Porto), Thomas Muhr (University of Bristol), Amy W. Newhall (University of Arizona), Per Nyborg (former Head, Bologna Process Secretariat, 2003-2005), Kavita Pandit (State University of New York System Administration), Fazal Rizvi (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Morshidi Sirat (Universiti Sains Malaysia), Alan Smart (University of Calgary), Nigel Thrift (University of Warwick), Masarah Van Eyck (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Neha Vora (Texas A&M University), Antoni Verger (University of Amsterdam), Johanna Waters (University of Liverpool), Jill Wisniewski (American Council on Education), Gisèle Yasmeen (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), and Pavel Zgaga (University of Ljubljana). These are early days in the life of GlobalHigherEd so other contributors will join the network over time.

Our efforts are partially an outcome of the Constructing Knowledge Spaces (CKS) network, which has received support from numerous institutions, but especially the WUN. In Madison, Kris Olds’ work on developing the CKS network (and the blog) has been supported by several institutions including East Asian Studies, European Studies, the European Union Center of Excellence, Geography, Global Studies, the Graduate School, International Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and WISCAPE. Kris’ work is also supported by Sciences Po in Paris, where he is based until August 2008. In Bristol, Susan Robertson’s work is being supported by several institutions including the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), and the European Commission. Needless to say all of our contributors have been supported by a myriad of institutions over the last several years. Please note, however, that views and opinions in this blog are not formally sanctioned by any of the above institutions.

Please do not hesitate to contact Kris Olds <kolds@wisc.edu> or Susan Robertson <S.L.Robertson@bristol.ac.uk> at anytime with questions or feedback.

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