23 August, 2024

The European Higher Education (EAIR) Society Conference took place in University College Cork between the 21st and the 23rd of August this year. The mission of EAIR is to support research and development in higher education research, policy and practice, to the general benefit of higher education.

The theme of this year's conference was “Sustainability, Resilience and Wellbeing”.

Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence was represented by Rebecca Robinson whose abstract on “Engaging Green Champions for an Effective Higher Education Green Transition - Identifying key aspects to better engage individuals in HEIs in sustained growth for the Green Transition” was accepted to present in Track 4.

 

 

Track 4 focused on “Sustaining Resilient Quality Cultures in Higher Education”.
This track invited contributions on the influence, impact, and scope of quality methodologies from system and institutional perspectives, indicatively;

• What leadership configurations, orientations and practice are important in establishing and sustaining resilient quality cultures in higher education systems and institutions?
• In what ways can quality assurance methodologies be developed to respond to changing system and/or institutional quality concepts, missions, and cultures?
• What mechanisms and information sources might be required for monitoring and evaluating a resilient quality culture? In what ways might this be realised?
• How can assurance and enhancement activities be balanced to support and sustain resilient quality cultures? What is the evidence for particular approaches or thematic areas that might be important in this regard?
• How can the voices and perspectives of important stakeholders such as learners, community and social groups inform and sustain resilient quality cultures?
• What are the implications arising from the different divisions of roles at systems level and the varying purposes of quality?

Rebecca’s presentation shared data collected from the needs and knowledge assessment survey associated with the GET-AHED project collected as part of Work Package 3. The data explores the current knowledge and gaps, identities and attitudes in HEIs to better understand how to bridge the gap towards a more engaged green champion community on campus that empowers a sustained green transition.

The dataset contains responses from 218 individuals, across the 3 cohorts (Students, staff and management), from HEIs across 5 countries - Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal.

Project partner, Dr. Verena Régent, a senior researcher for higher education research from WPZ Research GmbH, Vienna also presented on Track 4, talking about “Sustainability self-assessment for HEIs and its potential for sustainability strategies” relating to the GET-AHED project. Verena also presented in Track 3 (Sustaining Research Excellence) presenting  “From R&I to societal and economic impact - an exploratory analysis of good practices in higher education and innovation systems”, which gained much interest.

 

 

Attending the conference was a great opportunity to disseminate the work done so far on the project and to recruit for pilot HEIs across Europe, to test the GET-AHED platform.

 

 

Rebecca Robinson

Hincks Centre Researcher

 

 

To learn more about the Get-Ahed project, visit the project page on our website.

 

https://www.get-ahed.eu/

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.