In a bid to inform the debate about the future of universities and understand exactly what it means to be a world-class university in a competitive twenty-first century, the WUN Ideas and Universities project brings together leading higher education scholars from across Australia, Canada, China, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Through lively virtual seminars and conferences, the group considers the roles that universities have played and continue to play in the global knowledge economy and the evolving identity of university teacher-researchers and their changing roles in institutions of higher learning.
The project explores the way in which ideas have found expression in universities from the emergence of the earliest western universities in the late 12th century to now. It has a very broad base of support across the partnership—attracting faculty, students and university managers—much of this excitement being due to the fact that the comparative dimension explores the approach from universities both at different times and at different places.
Overarching themes include:
- The purpose of universities: ideals and realities
- Internationalisation
- Causes and mechanisms of change
