Listening to students for tomorrow, today: engaging students to define the future of higher education

Abstract

This article examines the voices of students at a symposium organized by the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) in 2018: ‘Learning for Tomorrow, Today: Future Fit Universities for 2040’. Twenty students from 11 universities attended with university leaders and policy makers. A dataset of field notes, written comments, post-event evaluations, and over 3 hours of video-material was accumulated, and has been analysed through video-hermeneutics and content-analysis. Five students chose to become co-authors after critically reading and validating the text and analysis. The research question asks how students perceive teaching and learning in a future fit university in 2040. Using an ‘engagement through partnership’ model, we argue that combining the voices of current andfuture stakeholders moves the sector a step closer to ‘future fit’ higher education. Our main finding is that students are eager to contribute to policy, strategy and practice. Furthermore, they express a view that universities must play a significant role in securing core societal values and in developing future citizens able to participate in democracy. At no point did students question the existence of universities in 2040. We argue that the students express a wish to assume the role of co-drivers and agents of change, not only in university management, but also in pedagogy and co-creation of new knowledge. Positioning themselves thus, they challenge our practice as academic staff, signalling that to develop full partnerships, we must position ourselvesas learners too, and embrace co-creation.