On these events and opportunities pages we hope to keep you informed of events to hear the research of other members, visiting speakers, and opportunities to present your own research locally, nationally, and internationally. Specific upcoming events are listed below. More information about other general events and opportunities are listed in the other pages listed.
- This event has passed.
Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Conference (Newport, Wales)
November 11, 2019 - November 13, 2019
SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education
11-13 December 2019
Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales, United Kingdom
Conference Theme: Creativity, Criticality and Conformity in Higher Education
SRHE Newer and Early Career Researchers Conference
10 December 2019
Coldra Court, Newport, Wales, United Kingdom
Conference theme: What does it mean to be an academic citizen in 2019?
How HE researchers and evaluators create and respond to change
Conference theme
Creativity, Criticality and Conformity in Higher Education
The definition of creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, and interpretations.
Universities should surely be creative places. The economic, political and social climate that universities work in across the world present challenges to this. In many cultures there is an emphasis on measurable, economic outcomes. Does this have to result in policy that emphasises only some parts of the work that universities do, obscuring important activities that often develop and thrive at the margins, or in the spaces between traditional functions?
It could be argued that higher education researchers too draw on an increasingly limited range of methodologies, approaches and ideas that are often not persuasive to policy makers. Have we, in search of measurability and academic respectability, retreated to a dull conformity where anything different is just too risky?
Should we instead challenge ourselves to transcend traditional rules, build an innovative culture and practice of research and problem solving, in order to throw light onto the shadows rather than ignore them? What is it we need to know more about in universities in relation to their role in the world, their place for social good and the building of global diverse societies? How can higher education researchers be creative in their approaches to illuminate these areas, and to make a positive difference in the world?
The SRHE Annual International Research Conference attracts wide participation from researchers globally. It provides a stimulating international forum for papers of an empirical or scholarly nature relating to research into higher education, in the broadest sense, and from a breadth of different disciplinary perspectives. The conference is highly participative, promoting the dissemination and exchange of ideas in a variety of formats, across a range of research domains.