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The political, social, and institutional environments in which contemporary universities operate have changed rather dramatically over the past two decades in ways that threaten the resilience of the academic core, both in its ability to map knowledge comprehensively and also to maintain a balance between the branches of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. This paper traces historical changes (2003–2019) in the academic core of two "flagship" research-intensive universities located in Northern Europe. The results show that some branches of the academic core are undergoing dynamic processes of program churn that make them resilient. Furthermore, the data show that this resilience is enabled in large part by bridging different branches of knowledge by establishing what we term interbranch programs. In addition to the abovementioned findings, the paper links ongoing discussions regarding change in HE systems and institutions to the literature on organizational resilience, and it advances insights for a possible future theory of how adaptation plays out in the academic core over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies what can be called the 'paradox of interdisciplinarity' (Weingart ) in Australian higher education research governance and explores some of its constitutive dimensions. In the Australian context, the paradox of interdisciplinarity primarily concerns the proliferation of a programmatic discourse of interdisciplinarity in government reports and government policy and strategy documents, often tied to notions of innovation and applicability, parallel to the persistence or even reinforcement of modes of governance and associated mechanisms that almost exclusively rely on rigid discipline-based classification systems to evaluate and fund research. Two interrelated dimensions of this apparent paradox are discussed. First, the conceptions of knowledge that underpin the use of notions of disciplinarity as well as interdisciplinarity in Australian government reports and policy and strategy papers are analysed. Second, an analysis of the Australian research governance system and its underlying mechanisms is presented, as they pertain to interdisciplinary forms of research. On the basis of these analyses, it is concluded that there is a significant mismatch between the discourse of interdisciplinarity and associated conceptions of knowledge on the one hand, and current, relatively inflexible governmental research funding and evaluation practices on the other. It is finally proposed that the occurrence and perpetuation of such a mismatch in the Australian context can only be understood properly if placed in the context of a more general paradox of research governance, where a politically charged rhetoric of innovation conflicts with the actual trend toward an increasingly diminishing scope for the self-organisation of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education studies give considerable attention to understanding change. The interest in change reflects the historical conditions in which higher education emerged as a distinct field of study. Around the mid-twentieth century, a pragmatic need for an academic response to managing larger and more complex higher education institutions and systems was taking shape. This need gave rise to a tradition of studying change in higher education, which has continued into the present. To explore how higher education researchers have been grappling with the problem of change, we examine a selection of works published in this and other higher education outlets since the 1970s. We organize our exploration around three distinct yet interrelated lines of research: (a) change within higher education institutions, which in higher education studies are typically conceptualized as organizations; (b) change concerning nation-states, which are usually conceptualized as systems; and (c) transnational change, sometimes referred to also as global. Each line of research features the field's telltale dual orientation: (i) contributing to abstract knowledge through academic inquiry, on the one hand, and (ii) generating practical and actionable insights for decision makers, on the other. We find that the field's dual orientation shapes knowledge creation along each line of inquiry, yet with important variations. We propose more generally that higher education studies' ability to balance the two orientations is an important source of its legitimacy as a field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes efforts from the mid-1990s in South Africa to reshape higher education curricula, and the responses of universities to a series of policy initiatives concerned with higher education curriculum reform. Pressures of globalisation and the local challenges of reconstruction and development formed the context in which higher education curriculum restructuring occurred. Two discourses, a credit-accumulation-and-transfer discourse and a disciplinary discourse, have shaped education policy making in South Africa since the mid-1990s, particularly in higher education. Policy initiatives to re-shape higher education curricula are discussed, as well as the ways in which science and humanities faculties at universities have responded to these initiatives. A typology of different curriculum forms is presented which suggests that in spite of the influence of the credit exchange discourse in policy documents, undergraduate curricula continue to be presented on a largely disciplinary basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government agencies, foundations, business and industry, and other important higher education stakeholders continue to invest in important and deep changes they think are necessary for the vitality and health of higher education particularly interdisciplinary teaching and research. But we know little about how transformational changes happen, particularly bottom up approaches required for altering the teaching/learning environment. This article reports on one of the few studies of transformational change describing case study research of 28 institutions attempting to fundamentally shift toward interdisciplinary work. The results identify the key role of sensemaking and sensegiving and build on earlier research showing how these processes change from mobilization to the implementation of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data collected through 45 interviews with faculty, doctoral students, and administrators affiliated with an interdisciplinary neuroscience program, I examine the structure of the interdisciplinary graduate curriculum. The data presented here highlight the challenge of such programs. I review the purpose, organization, and content of the interdisciplinary curriculum, noting those challenges that arise. Not only do such programs require collaboration among faculty who traditionally has been highly invested in their individual discipline or department, but they also require an active, deliberate process to foster interdisciplinary integration and student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a study of senior academics’ views of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary affiliations. It questions the idea that academics have a firm and fixed disciplinary identity from which they then act and suggests that academic work in the contemporary university challenges and changes how individuals view their disciplinary affiliation. The article provides empirical data that lends weight to critical questioning of anthropological metaphors, which have tended to dominate discussions of disciplinarity. It suggests that contemporary understandings of disciplinary and interdisciplinary identity need more fluid metaphors and models; ones that can capture the shifting and questioning uncertainties that give expression to the rhetorical and reflexive nature of academics’ disciplinary affiliations. The article explores the implications of a dominant emphasis on disciplinary relationships for understanding disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and examines the practical implications for structures and systems that are designed to enhance and evaluate research and teaching within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in research production precipitated by the globalization have generally been theorized as applying across nations and disciplinary projects. This article examines the relation of discipline to research production from the situational vantage point of the developing world, specifically the Southern African country of Malawi, and from the empirical perspective of the social sciences. Evidence derives from eight months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malawi in 2003 and 2004, drawing specifically from over 100 formal interviews and from analysis of historical and contemporary documents. The article finds that against depictions of academic disciplines as inflexible, arbitrary, and in need of restructuring, the case of the social sciences in Malawi demonstrates the value of distinctly disciplined expertise in problem-oriented research. This efficacy is, however, precariously dependent on the capacity of local disciplinary communities to regenerate and reproduce their expertise and compete effectively in the increasingly competitive knowledge market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, universities received more diversified demands for continuing education. Market demands may contribute to create innovative courses and introducing new perspectives. A critical question is, however, if universities should respond to all market demands, or base continuing education on research-oriented teaching and learning. Case studies of Norwegian universities show the second understanding to be universal there. Strategic plans are quite general, so different strategies for continuing education are inferred from course offers and interviews. Six strategies are presented and discussed: Research news for professionals; Same content with flexible delivery; Adapted specialisation; Interdisciplinary Master's degrees; Interdisciplinary courses for new markets; Tailor-made on commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]