Paul Ashwin is a Professor of Higher Education, Head of the Educational Research Department at Lancaster University and Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education. His research is focused on the educational role of higher education. He is interested in how higher education curricula can be designed to help transform students' understanding of themselves and the world. He is also interested in the role of policies in shaping the education offered by higher education institutions. In this episode, Paul Ashwin discusses the arguments in his recent book. Talking to Paul is Onur Orkut, a PhD researcher at the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University and a member of CHERE@LU. Follow Onur on social media: @onurorkut

Don Passey is a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. Don’s research interests include, but are not limited to the implementation and management of leading-edge technologies, teaching and learning outcomes that arise from them, and how technologies support different groups of learners. In this podcast, Don talks about his project on developing ongoing uses of technologies in post-compulsory education in the UK and Malaysia. In this study, Don and his colleague examined the use of technology for teaching and learning in times of continuous technological development. They revealed that innovation is an essential approach in this process. As a result of the project, Don and his colleague proposed a model for the implementation of educational technologies.  Talking to Don is Olga Rotar, an alumna at the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University and a member of CHERE@LU.

Daniel Clark is the Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Kent and a PhD researcher at Lancaster University. In this talk, Daniel draws upon his professional experiences and applies a critical lens to the emergent rhetoric of EdTech in post-pandemic HE. Daniel discusses his recent paper; a critical discourse analysis of sector-orientated literature published in response to the pandemic. Daniel argues that whilst technology may have been the ‘saviour’ of HE from the immediate challenges of the pandemic, the opportunistic dialogue that emerged has problematically imbued debate with notions of the pandemic as a catalyst for transformation, opening the door to unprecedented levels of investment into a pervasive and data-driven paradigm of EdTech.  Daniel argues that the rhetoric of EdTech is mediatory of neoliberal, libertarian, and consumerist ideologies, and that the portrayal of technology as a wholly beneficial enterprise obscures issues of privacy, ethics, and structural inequality.    Talking to Daniel, is Dr Janja Komljenovic, a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU.

In the podcast, Dr Tore Bernt Sørensen talks about the roles, ideas, workings and influence of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in global education governance, historically and currently. The podcast draws especially on the special issue Re-reading the OECD and education: the emergence of a global governing complex, of which Tore was a guest editor together with Christian Ydesen (Aalborg University) and Susan L. Robertson (University of Cambridge). The special issue was published in Globalisation, Societies and Education in March 2021.  Talking to Tore, is Dr Janja Komljenovic, a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU.

Dr Hemy Ramiel is a postdoctoral researcher in the sociology, communication and political sciences department in the Open University in Israel. In this episode, Hemy talks about his research of an Israeli edtech R&D unit and a startup incubator. He discusses his choice of studying the edtech field through this organisation and the notion of disruption as the primary logic for the units’ activities. Also, the logic of disruption can be understood as a perspective for understanding the edtech industry agenda for educational change. Hemy presents his analysis on how students are framed as digital users in the edtech production; and the implications of this “userisation” framework on the education sector. Finally, Hemy touches on some fundamental traits of the edtech field, such as its technological solutionism and its universal cross-cultural ideas. The episode concludes with the ways we need to think critically about edtech products and policy agendas. The two articles discussed in the episode are: “Edtech disruption logic and policy work: the case of an Israeli edtech unit” published in Learning, Media and Technology; and “User or student: constructing the subject in Edtech incubator” published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Talking to Hemy, is Dr Janja Komljenovic, a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU.

Dr Richard Budd is a Lecturer in Higher Education at Lancaster University. In this episode, Richard talks about his 3DHEI project. This research explores how a university’s different dimensions – social composition, organisation culture, and the physical campus itself – mediate students’ experiences. Richard spoke to a diverse group of over 40 students at a UK university about how those elements are perceived by them, and how they impact how it ‘feels’ to be a student there. It became clear in this study that all of those dimensions matter, that they are interrelated, and this suggests that incorporating a broader sense of the local into higher education research could tell us more about how universities compare.  Talking to Richard, is Dr Janja Komljenovic, a Lecturer of Higher Education at Lancaster University and the Director of CHERE@LU.

Dr Miguel Antonio Lim is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Environment, Education, and  Development (SEED) at the University of Manchester. Miguel's research interests include internationalization of higher education, East Asian and transnational higher education, university rankings and performance metrics. He critically studies the institutional strategies of East Asian and Chinese Universities to build ‘World-Class’ Universities, establish transnational partnerships, and improve their reputation and rankings. Talking to Miguel is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

In this episode, Professor Velda McCune talks about the wicked problems project. This project is about how teachers in higher education prepare students for wicked problems. Wicked problems are messy real-world problems that lack obvious solutions and often involve stakeholders with contrasting world views. Examples of wicked problems include the climate emergency, conflict and pandemics. Vel and her colleagues interviewed teachers who taught about these problems, asking them what they did in their teaching and what sort of learning they hoped would happen. Wicked problems project website link: http://www.wickedproblems.ed.ac.uk/ Talking to Sylvie is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

Sylvie Lomer is a Lecturer in Education at the Manchester Institute for Education, University of Manchester. In this episode, Sylvie talks about her programme of research building on her critical study of UK policy on international student recruitment. Two linked projects are currently running with colleagues from UoM, one focusing on pedagogy (with Dr Jenna Mittelmeier),and one focusing on institutional policies (with Dr Steve Courtney and Dr Jenna Mittelmeier). Both projects look to examine how dominant narratives about international students shape academic environments, from the classroom to the university as a whole. Twitter handle: @SE_Lomer Project website link: https://internationalpedagogies.home.blog/ Talking to Sylvie is Olga Rotar, a doctoral researcher and a member of CHERE@LU.

Sina Westa is a research associate at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. In this episode, Sina talks about her research on academic freedom, conducted during her PhD at the University of Ljubljana within the Marie Curie ITN framework (Universities in the Knowledge Economy). Sina highlights that academic freedom is a highly political concept that is dependent on time and space. On the one hand, exercising this right is connected to a high degree of social responsibility; and on the other hand, it needs to be exercised continuously to be safeguarded. Especially in times of the current COVID pandemic and the connected impetus of science and research, more attention needs to be given to an open discussion of academic freedom and individual freedoms in more broadly. Talking to Sina is Dr Janja Komljenovic from CHERE@LU.