Centre for Higher Education Studies

Director: Professor Tatiana Fumasoli

The Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) was founded in 1986 and investigates higher education systems and policy, institutions and their governance and management, internationalisation and globalisation of knowledge production, as well as research and academic careers in the knowledge society.

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Our staff

Director

• Professor Tatiana Fumasoli

The CHES Team

• Professor Claire Callender
• Professor Vincent Carpentier
• Professor Richard Freeman
• Professor Lesley Gourlay
• Dr Gwyneth Hughes
• Professor Jim McKinley
• Professor Paul Morris
• Dr Victoria Showunmi
• Dr Holly Smith

Associate Members

• Dr Annette Bamberger – Bar-Ilan University 
• Dr Will Brehm - University of Canberra
• Dr Andrea Detmer - International HE consultant
• Professor Adam Dubis – Global Business School for Health, UCL
• Dr Kaiyun Feng - University of Cambridge
• Professor Abel Nyamapfene – Education Practice and Society, UCL IOE
• Dr Michael Plouffe – Department of Political Science, UCL
• Professor Richard Watermeyer – University of Bristol

PhD students

• Junic Kim – Redefining university business model: A platform-based approach
• Jiajie Liu – Early career academics identity development and experience between teaching and research
• Joel McConnell – Universities and digital transformation: the role of corporate skill assessment
• Taixing Shen – Universities’ strategic engagement in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area
• Dinara Sultan – The role of the board of directors in universities in Kazakhstan 
• Yu Yang – Job mismatch for engineering PhD holders in the UK, US and China
• Tao Zou – The link between trade openness and international student mobility

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Study with us

Courses

Graduate taught

• Higher Education Studies MA

Graduate research

Students undertaking doctoral research at CHES investigate topics such as higher education policy, university governance and management, teaching and learning.

Contact a departmental graduate tutor to find a supervisor.

Short courses

We run the short course Leaders in University Management (LiUM), both online and at the Bloomsbury campus.

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Activities

Our research

CHES conducts several research projects.

Consultancy

We undertake a wide range of consultancy projects on the topic of policy, governance, management and organisation of Higher Education. CHES is leading an international team of experts in a World Bank project on internationalisation of higher education in Georgia (2023-2025, €976,209). 

Research events

CHES research events

These events provide a forum for academic debate, policy analysis and practice insight in higher education and supporting the exchange of theories, methods and data across the social sciences.

We run three types of research events:

• Symposia: international academics and experts meet to present papers and to discuss future research agendas.
• Seminars: a top scholar presents a piece of their research.
• Doctoral seminars: PhD and EdD students in the field of higher education studies present their ongoing research.

Recent CHES doctoral seminars included:

• Wednesday 28 February 2024: "International master's education students evolving understanding of effective feedback opportunities during their first term" – Lesley Price, EdD candidate; "Gendering the research pipeline: A quantitative feminist geographical approach" – Laura Sheppard, PhD candidate.
• Wednesday 29 November 2023: "Students who take time out of their study programmes" – Bridie Woods, EdD Candidate; "Self-perceived employability of graduates from the international joint universities" – Anan Chen, PhD Candidate.

If you would like to present your research as part of the CHES research events, please contact: ioe.ches_seminar@ucl.ac.uk

See forthcoming research events.

Public engagement

• Rethinking the Business Model of Higher Education, QS event Crisis Management: Remaking European higher education amid unfolding social realities | Tatiana Fumasoli | 28-30 June 2022 9.30am-12.30pm
• Universities' crisis management response to the global pandemic, University of Bristol - Speaker: Tatiana Fumasoli | 15 June 2022 1pm - 2pm
• The globally engaged university: organisational capacity and strategic positioning at times of Covid 19, Institute for Higher Education Management (Vienna) - Speaker: Tatiana Fumasoli | 24 March 2022
• Influences on and dimensions of English university governing body roles, Centre for Global Higher Education - Alison Wheaton (Doctoral student of Tatiana Fumasoli) | 28 April 2022 2pm - 3pm

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