The possibilities for re-imagining higher education
Higher education offers myriad possibilities to develop students’ personal agency and help them to develop the capability to thrive; that is, to imagine, pursue and realise a life that they have reason to value and which is of value to their society. However, higher education systems around the world display a high level of homogeneity in how they both conceptualise and architect students’ learning journey. Higher education is facing major disruption in the coming years, as the various mega-trends that are shaping the sector start to exert increasing influence. This talk will examine the higher education landscape and explore these trends in detail, while considering their implications for those tasked with providing impactful and innovative educational offerings in a world where knowledge is no longer the form tradeable capital it once was. In exploring the possibilities which emerge from such disruption, the growing importance of transversal skills will be discussed, as will the challenge of how to define, operationalise, integrate, assess and evidence these, as well as the perceived tension that exists between such skills and discipline knowledge.
Ciarán Dunne
Ciarán is the first Transversal Skills Director for Dublin City University, tasked with identifying, operationalising, integrating and evidencing specific competences which will develop students' personal agency and capability to thrive in an increasingly complex and unscripted world. Prior to taking on this role, Ciarán was Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, lecturing across multiple disciplines, including Sociology, Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Spanish language, Creativity, Futures Literacy, and Intercultural Studies. He has been Chairperson of the BA in Social Sciences and Cultural Innovation, the MA in Intercultural Studies and the MA in Comparative Literature. His research has been published in top-ranking international journals across multiple disciplines, such as Creativity Studies, Sociology, International Education, Intercultural Studies, and Qualitative Research Methods. Ciarán is passionate about creativity and has a particular interest in exploring how human creativity can be stimulated and enhanced, and created the Credne project and podcast, which focused on approaches to fostering creativity in education and beyond. In 2018, he was awarded the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at DCU in the category of Distinctive Approaches to Teaching.