Conference Title: Universities in the Knowledge Economy: Perspectives from Asia-Pacific and Europe

Panel: Alternative Ways of Thinking the University: Part II

Universities seemingly everywhere are undergoing a major process of transformation.
In New Zealand and the United Kingdom, declining public expenditure on research and teaching is bringing intense pressure on universities to commercialise their intellectual property and other assets. Elsewhere the notion that universities should become the engines of the new knowledge economy has also become a key feature of the landscape of higher education reform.

This conference asks:
What is the place of universities in the emerging ‘ecology’ of higher education systems that straddle industry, government and the public sphere? How are universities negotiating the demands placed upon them to compete in the global knowledge economy? What new subjects and spaces are emerging under the new conditions of existence for universities? How do academics, students, managers and policy makers make sense of these changes? Are there alternative ways of organising the university and its relations with society and if so, where are these being developed?