Research events
Events at the Centre for Higher Education Studies.
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.
Schedule
The events are free to attend.
For more information, please email ioe.ches_seminar@ucl.ac.uk.
Reconciling marketisation – Understanding the new political economy of higher education
The seminar series is jointly hosted by the Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) at IOE and the Centre for Higher Education Transformations at University of Bristol. It will run from September 2024 – March 2025, with seven individual (online) seminars that culminate in a final (in-person) symposium that collectively problematise higher education as a site of possibility and opportunity in the post-marketisation milieu. The seminar series will consider external forces and internal realities shaping the architecture of higher education as a crucible of reformist agendas (impacting both the wider public and university communities). Each seminar will feature a panel of speakers and a discussant.
2024–25 Programme
Term 2
From higher education to employment and public citizenship
26 February 2025, 1–2:30pm (GMT): register now
- Panellists: Andy Westwood, University of Manchester; Ellen Hazelkorn, BH Associates & TU Dublin; James Robson, University of Oxford
- Discussant: Martin Kitchener, University of Cardiff
The death of prestige: disbanding a rankings imperative
26 March 2025, 1–2:30pm (GMT): register now
- Panellists: Leslie D Gonzales, University of Arizona; Michelle Stack, University of British Columbia; Georgiana Mihut, University of Warwick
- Discussant: Camille Kandiko Howson, Imperial College London
The implications of polycrisis for higher education
2 April 2025, 1–2:30pm (GMT): register now
- Panellists: Sharon Stein, University of British Columbia; Basma Hajir, University of Bristol; Steven Jones, University of Manchester
- Discussant: Richard Hall, De Montfort University
Term 1
Refinancing higher education
25 September 2024, 1–2pm: watch video recording
- Panellists: Vincent Carpentier, University College London; Kate Ogden, Institute for Fiscal Studies; Mark Corver, DataHE
- Discussant: Huw Morris, University College London
The end of higher education massification – rebalancing the HE offer?
30 October 2024, 1–2pm: watch video recording
- Panellists: Ka Ho Mok, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong; Christopher Millward, University of Birmingham; Christopher Newfield, Independent Social Research Foundation
- Discussant: Michael Tomlinson, University of Southampton
Undoing internationalisation?
27 November 2024, 1–2pm: watch video recording
- Panellists: Hans de Wit, Boston College; Jenna Mittelmeier, University of Manchester; Malcolm Tight, University of Lancaster
- Discussant: Catherine Montgomery, University of Durham
The reshaping of higher education by digital technologies
11 December 2024, 1–2pm: watch video recording
- Panellists: David Staley, The Ohio State University; Tanner Mirrlees, Ontario Tech University; Darren Moon, London School of Economics
- Discussant: Janja Komljenovic, University of Edinburgh
Previous events
Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 November 2022, Organised by UCL, PKU, HKU (CHERA)
Wednesday 24 May 2023
Term one
Friday 24 September 2021, 4 to 5:15pm
Friday 1 October 2021, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: 'Meet the Editors' with Professor Tatiana Fumasoli, Editor of Higher Education Quarterly (HEQ) – Professor Tatiana Fumasoli (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 13 October 2021, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: Academic mavericks in the global marketplace – Dr Anatoly Oleksiyenko (The University of Hong Kong)
Wednesday 3 November 2021, 12 to 2pm
- CHES doctoral seminar – Dinara Sultan (PhD student, UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 17 November 2021, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: Opening-up as entrepreneurial internationalisation in Chinese higher education – Dr Zhou Zhong (Tsinghua University)
Wednesday 15 December 2021, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: Addressing the precarity of research careers – Professor Cláudia S. Sarrico (School of Economics and Management, University of Minho)
Term two
Wednesday 19 January 2022, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: University strategic positioning as a veneer obscuring institutional diversity – Dr Julian Zipparo (University of Technology Sydney)
Wednesday 23 February 2022, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: International students and Higher Education systems in France and the UK: a historical perspective – Professor Vincent Carpentier (UCL Institute of Education)
Term three
Wednesday 18 May 2022, 12 to 1pm
- Seminar: Agency problems in agent-based international student recruitment – Dr Pii-Tuulia Nikula (Eastern Institute of Technology)
Wednesday 20 January 2021, 12 to 2pm
- Seminar: Digital wayfaring: post-human knowledge practices in higher education – Professor Lesley Gourlay (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 24 February 2021,12 to 2pm
- Seminar: Leadership and identity – Dr Victoria Showunmi (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 10 March 2021, 12 to 2pm
- CHES doctoral seminar – Kaiyun Feng and Alison Wheaton (PhD students at the UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 24 March 2021, 10am to 2pm
- CHES symposium: Strategy in higher education: global and national perspectives
Wednesday 28 April 2021, 12 to 2pm
- Seminar: Framing artificial intelligence futures: implications for higher education – Dr Inga Ulnicane (De Montfort University)
Wednesday 12 May 2021, 12 to 2pm
- CHES doctoral seminar – Andres Perez, Wen Xiaoyu and Cassie Zhang (Doctoral students, UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 19 May 2021, 12 to 2pm
- Seminar: Institutional barriers to participation in EU framework programs – Marco Cavallaro (Doctoral Student, University of Lugano)
Friday 28 May 2021, 10 to 11am
- Academic writing practice: challenges and solutions for doctoral students – Dr Yun Yu (Shanghai Normal University) and Jinyun Lee (UCL Geography)
Part of the Academic writing and publishing for doctoral students series: A UCL ChangeMakers and CHES practical webinar series on the academic writing skills for international postgraduate research (PGR) students.
Wednesday 9 June 2021, 10am to 2pm
- CHES and CDE symposium: Doctoral Education and its purposes: research training for a changing world – full speaker list on the event page
Friday 11 June 2021, 11am to 12pm
- Meeting the expectations of journal editor – Dr Yuwei Xu (UCL Institute of Education) and Dr Sin-Wang Chong (Queen’s University Belfast)
Part of the Academic writing and publishing for doctoral students series.
Wednesday 16 June 2021, 10am to 12:20pm
- UCL and Tohoku University joint symposium: reinventing international university education and the role of globally engaged universities. Dialogues between UK and Japan – full speaker list on event page
Wednesday 16 June 2021, 12 to 1:30pm
- CHES-CDE doctoral seminar (session 1 of 4) – Dr Jim McKinley and Dr Alfonso Del Percio (UCL Institute of Education)
Part of the CHES-CDE Doctoral Seminar Series.
Wednesday 23 June 2021, 12 to 1:30pm
- CHES-CDE doctoral seminar (session 2 of 4) – Dr Will Gibson and Hao Phan (UCL Institute of Education)
Part of the CHES-CDE Doctoral Seminar Series.
Friday 25 June 2021, 10 to 11am
- Rethinking academic writing from reviewer perspectives – Dr Tinghe Jin (University of East Anglia) and Meng Liu (PhD candidate at University of Cambridge).
Part of the Academic writing and publishing for doctoral students series.
Wednesday 30 June 2021, 12 to 1:30pm
- CHES-CDE doctoral seminar (session 3 of 4) – Dr Sue Taylor, Dr Tom Woodin and Dr Nicole Brown (UCL Institute of Education)
Part of the CHES-CDE Doctoral Seminar Series.
Wednesday 7 July 2021, 12 to 1:30pm
- CHES-CDE doctoral seminar (session 4 of 4) – Dr Giulio Marini, Dr Tatiana Fumasoli and Dr Victoria Showunmi (UCL Institute of Education)
Part of the CHES-CDE Doctoral Seminar Series.
Friday 16 July 2021, 11am to 12pm
- Navigating your academic trajectory in Hong Kong – Dr Jisun Jung (University of Hong Kong) and Dr Weiyan Xiong (Lingnan University)
Part of the UCL Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) and Chinese Educational Research Association (CERA) Summer Webinar Series.
Friday 23 July 2021, 11am to 12pm
- Navigating your academic trajectory: Mainland China and Japan – Dr Zhou Zhong and Dr Jing Liu
Part of the CHES and CERA Summer Webinar Series.
Wednesday 2 October 2019, 5:30–7pm
- Seminar: Studying similarities and differences in higher education organisations based on their websites – Dr Predrag Lažetić (University of Bath)
Wednesday 6 November 2019, 5:30–7pm
- Seminar: Falling through the cracks? Gender inequality, precarious work and higher education research – Dr Aline Courtois (University of Bath)
Wednesday 20 November 2019, 12–2pm
- Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) doctoral seminar – Sally Holt (UCL Institute of Education), Katia Nielsen (University of Copenhagen) and Paola Eiras (University of Surrey)
Wednesday 15 January 2020, 5:30–7pm
- Seminar: Scale and scope of private providers in English higher education – Dr Stephen Hunt (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 12 February 2020, 12:30–2pm
- Seminar: Young people within European higher education systems: contested constructions – Professor Rachel Brooks (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 6 May 2020, 10am–3:30pm
- Symposium: Understanding patterns of expansion and retrenchment in internationalisation of higher education – full speaker list on the event page
Wednesday 27 May 2020, 12–2pm
- Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) doctoral seminar – Amanda Walker, Ayse Gur Geden, Kaiyun Feng, and Alison Wheaton (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 17 June 2020, 10:30am–3:30pm
- Symposium: What is global leadership in higher education? – full speaker list on the event page
Wednesday 3 October 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Re-claiming the mission of the civic university in the 21st century – Professor Mary Stuart CBE (University of Lincoln)
Wednesday 7 November 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Does it have a price tag? Student perceptions of a value-for-money higher education – Elizabeth Staddon (University of the Arts London)
Wednesday 12 December 2018, 5:30–7pm
- The neoliberal turn in higher education research and writing – Professor Malcolm Tight (Lancaster University)
Wednesday 9 January 2019, 5:30–7pm
- The promise and politics of meta-research – Professor James Wilsdon (University of Sheffield)
Wednesday 6 February 2019, 5:30–7pm
- Does proximity affect the impact of university-industry collaborations? – Dr Federica Rossi (Birkbeck, University of London)
Wednesday 6 March 2019, 5:30–7pm
- Varieties of European universities' engagement with social media platforms – Dr Janja Komljenovic (Lancaster University)
Wednesday 10 April 2019, 5:30–7pm
- The strength of weak expertise: understanding the influence of global university rankers – Dr Miguel Antonio Lim (University of Manchester)
Wednesday 1 May 2019, 5:30–7pm
- Transnationalisation of higher education through quality assurance – Dr Eva Hartmann (University of Cambridge)
Wednesday 13 December 2017, 5:30–7pm
- Equal competition among unequals: strategic positioning of higher education institutions – Dr Tatiana Fumasoli (UCL Institute of Education)
Wednesday 10 January 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Paradoxes of competitive accountability: The deleterious effects of the REF to science and society – Dr Richard Watermeyer (University of Bath)
Wednesday 7 February 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Beyond allocation: the evolving purposes of UK research assessment – James Wilsdon (University of Sheffield) and Dr Steven Hill (Higher Education Funding Council for England)
Wednesday 7 March 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Why universities should seek happiness and contentment – Professor Paul Gibbs (Middlesex University)
Wednesday 18 April 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Contracting with students? Re-thinking higher education as invitation to treat – Dr Amanda Fulford (Leeds Trinity University)
Wednesday 2 May 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Forensic and agent accountability in HE – Dr Morgan White
Wednesday 6 June 2018, 5:30–7pm
- Researcher Developers: An emerging third-space profession? – Dr Richard Freeman (UCL Institute of Education) and Dr Anna Price (Queen Mary University of London)
Contact us
If you have any questions, please contact: ioe.ches_seminar@ucl.ac.uk