Call for Papers: ZFHE 18/3

Posted on 2022-08-28

Call for papers – Special issue
The future of higher education

Editors: Christian Wassmer, Katharina Sommer, Elena Wilhelm, Carole Probst (Winterthur)
Date of publication: October 2023
 

To the main topic

In a rapidly changing world, the expectations placed on higher education institutions are also changing. Increasingly, students need to be trained for job profiles or jobs that do not even exist today. In view of the dynamic social and economic environment, the question arises as to how higher education must be designed in the future to meet these developments as well as individual and societal expectations. In addition to the question of the competencies to be learned and the educational content, there is also the question of future educational formats and forms of teaching and learning. In this issue, we want to explore the questions of what the future of higher education will look like and how it can be designed and organized by higher education institutions. These questions can be examined from several perspectives:

Regarding educational content, higher education institutions are confronted with great societal challenges, such as climate change, migration, or the future of democracy under the conditions of populist concepts of societies. How are such challenges taken into account in the curriculum and what impact do they have on existing educational content? How can higher education institutions respond to these social developments?

Closely related to such questions are the competencies that students are expected to develop. In the discussion about “future skills” or “21st century skills” (Ehlers, 2020; Bellanca, 2010), the assumption is that graduates will be able to remain capable of acting in a highly dynamic working world, to proactively meet social changes and to actively shape them.

Not only the content and competencies, but also the educational formats and the forms of teaching and learning will (have to) adapt to new expectations and realities in the higher education environment. Flexibilization and individualization of education are frequently mentioned keywords in this context (Müller et al., 2019). From an individual perspective, the demand for self-realization is articulated, based on individual life situations and preferences. Depending on the biographical life situation, educational opportunities are used – always depending on available resources and interests. The interaction of online and onsite teaching and learning around a blended higher education institution (Wassmer & Wilhelm, 2021) also plays an important role. The issue of educational formats includes the question of continuing education at higher education institutions. How will higher education institutions react to increased student enrollment and how will the relationship to undergraduate teaching develop? Will the distinction between undergraduate teaching and continuing education dissolve in the future?

Linked with the future of higher education is a further development of quality development and assurance. In the context of the discussion about flexibilization and individualization of higher education as well as interdisciplinarity, new concepts for quality assessment become significant. Thus, for higher education institutions questions also arise regarding the indicators and methods of future quality development and assurance.

Based on these and other topics, the journal aims to highlight scientifically sound developments and thus present viable concepts for the future of higher education.

 

References

Bellanca, J. A. (eds.) (2010). 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Ehlers, U. D. (2020). Vier Szenarien für die Hochschule der Zukunft. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, S. 263-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-29297-3_13

Müller, C., Barthelmess, P., Berger, C., Kucza, G., Müller, M. & Sieber, P. (eds.) (2019). Flexibles Lernen an Hochschulen gestalten 14(3). https://zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/issue/view/63

Wassmer, C. & Wilhelm, E. (2021). Der Blended University gehört die Zukunft. Impact (54), 11. https://impact.zhaw.ch/de/artikel/die-zukunft-gehoert-der-blended-university

 

Guidelines regarding the journal

The ZFHE is a peer-reviewed online journal that publishes scientific contributions of practical relevance concerning current higher education development issues. The focus is on didactical, structural, and cultural developments in teaching and learning. Topics that are innovative and still regarded as open in respect of their design options are preferred.

 

The ZFHE is published by a consortium of European researchers and funded by the Austrian Ministry for Science, Research and Economics. For more information, see https://www.zfhe.at.

 

Submission information

German or English contributions may be submitted in two possible formats:

Research contributions should meet the following criteria. The paper:

  • addresses a systemic question in transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary or subject-specific contexts;
  • has a research gap as its starting point;
  • is extensively embedded in current scholarly discourse;
  • has a robust methodological approach;
  • includes reflection on the author’s own work;
  • explains the research methodology;
  • employs a method that is suitable for answering the research question;
  • presents the scientific discourse in a reflective manner;
  • makes a clearly recognizable contribution to answering the research question or to the research discussion;
  • consistently follows relevant citation rules (APA style, current edition);
  • comprises between 20,000 and 33,000 characters (with spaces, including cover page, bibliography and author information).

Research-driven development contributions should meet the following criteria. The paper:

  • features a higher education development perspective with a sound research base;
  • discusses and differentiates a systemic problem in teaching development;
  • is an academically grounded "institutional research" contribution;
  • is supported by a literature review;
  • meaningfully addresses the interaction between science and praxis and/or the link between the two poles of "research and development"
  • consistently follows pertinent citation rules (APA style, current edition);
  • comprises between 20,000 and 33,000 characters (with spaces, including cover page, bibliography and author information).

Development contributions should meet the following criteria. The paper:

  • deals with a concrete problem in higher education development in the (author’s) higher education institution;
  • addresses a practical need;
  • is embedded in the scientific discussion and literature (without claiming to provide an overview of the literature);
  • offers suggestions for teaching and university development, with recommendations for action (if applicable);
  • offers a systematic and transparent discussion (e.g. no incomprehensible references to specifics or details in a field of practice);
  • elaborates on generalisable aspects relevant to theoretical development;
  • addresses considerations related to the transfer to practice;
  • mentions possibilities for further research;
  • consistently follows relevant citation rules (APA style, current edition);
  • comprises between 20,000 and 33,000 characters (with spaces, including cover page, bibliography and author information).

 

Submission and review schedule

Mai 31, 2023 – Submission deadline for complete articles: Please upload your contribution(s) to the ZFHE journal system (https://www.zfhe.at) in the corresponding section (research contributions, research-driven development contributions, development contributions) of ZFHE 18/3 issue in anonymous format. To do so, you must first register as an author in the system.

June to August, 2023 – Feedback/Reviews: Scientific contributions and workshop reports are evaluated in a double-blind process (see below).

September 4, 2023 – Revision deadline: Where necessary, contributions may be revised according to feedback and recommendations from the reviews.

October 2023 – Online publication: In October 2022, the finalized contributions are published under https://www.zfhe.at and also made available in print.

 

Review Process

All submitted contributions will be examined in a double-blind peer review process to guarantee scientific quality. The editors of the current issue propose the reviewers for the respective theme and allocate individual contributions to the reviewers; they also determine which contributions will be accepted. The selection of reviewers and the review process for each thematic issue are always supervised by a member of the editorial board.

 

Formatting and submission

In order to save valuable time with the formatting of the contributions, we kindly ask that all authors work with the template from the beginning. The template can be downloaded from the ZFHE website under the following links:

https://www.zfhe.at/userupload/ZFHE_18-3_TEMPLATE_de.docx

https://www.zfhe.at/userupload/ZFHE_18-3_TEMPLATE_en.docx

Since we must be able to edit the texts, they must be submitted unlocked/unprotected in in Microsoft Word (.doc), Office Open XML (.docx), Open Document Text (.odt) or Plain Text (.txt) format. Please do not submit any PDF files! Submissions in the “Scientific Contribution” and “Workshop Report” categories must first be made in anonymous format in order to guarantee the double-blind review process. Please remove all references to the author(s) of the document (including in the document properties!). Upon a positive review result, this information will be re-inserted.

 

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding the content of the issue, please contact hochschulentwicklung@zhaw.ch.
For technical and organizational questions, please contact Elisabeth Stadler (office@zfhe.at).

 

We look forward to your submissions!

Christian Wassmer, Katharina Sommer, Elena Wilhelm und Carole Probst