Speaker: Professor Sian Bayne, University of Edinburgh

Date and time: Friday, April 25, at 14.00-15.30 Central European Summer Time (CEST / UTC+2)

Location: The event will take place as a hybrid event, with physical participation possible at both the Aarhus and Copenhagen DPU campuses, and online on Zoom.

Location Aarhus: Building 1483, room 616, Nobelparken, Jens-Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus C.

Location Copenhagen (Emdrup): Building A, room A302, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 København NV

Abstract
This lecture will consider the ways in which universities might approach the challenge of active change-making. In particular, it will consider how we translate research, and the desire for better futures, to the leadership and building of alternatives.

It will draw on recent research in higher education futures, looking at some of the key challenges faced by the sector including technological change, climate crisis and changing political landscapes. Then it will consider how approaches to higher education futures based in participative co-design and speculative methods can help ‘break open’ the ways in which we think about the goals and purpose of universities. Building on these, it will look at how we start to make the move from desire for change to leadership and the active building of new models.

The talk will connect these themes with work that has been done at the University of Edinburgh in the lead up to the launch of the new Edinburgh Futures Institute, using this as a case study to open up a broader discussion across the European context around what we want – and need – our universities to become.

Bio
Sian Bayne is Professor of Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, where she is Director of Education Futures in her role as Assistant Principal. She is also Director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education. Her research is critical and interdisciplinary, currently focused on higher education futures, utopia and theories of ‘enhancement’. She is one of the authors of The Manifesto for Teaching Online, gives regular keynotes on the future of digital education, publishes widely and has conducted research funded by UKRI, Erasmus+, AdvanceHE and NESTA.

More information about her work is available on her web site here