Reconfiguring Knowledge in Higher Education

This volume focuses on knowledge and knowledge policies as change drivers in higher education, with an empirical focus on Australia and Norway. It comprises nine thematic chapters framed by an introductory chapter and a conclusion. The thematic chapters are organized in three sections: Knowledge policies and change dynamics in higher education; Mediators of change at the interface of policy and practice (such as LOs, QFs, and new technologies); and Reconfiguration of knowledge in educational programmes. The context of the book is one where knowledge and changing forms of knowledge are now seen as central to national economic competitiveness and socio-economic endeavours aimed at reducing inequalities and social exclusion. In this development higher education has become a core sector as a consequence of its central role in various knowledge processes. Rapid knowledge developments and a ubiquity of knowledge processes in many areas of social and professional life, have led to growing pressures on higher education systems and organizations to align their educational programs with wider knowledge dynamics and to prepare students for different kinds of knowledge-intensive work practices. At the same time universities especially are pushed to demonstrate academic research excellence, as well as to contribute to innovation and the solving of the grand challenges the world is facing. This book addresses the specific questions of how the higher education sector is appropriately configured and managed to suit these concerns, and the empirical evidence of how reforms are reconfiguring the knowledge work of universities and colleges, and with what effects.