Academic citizenship in times of transition

Over the past four years, we have conducted a series of seminars and edited a special issue discussing academic citizenship and the role of higher education in a wider societal context. The seminars discussed the meaning of academic citizenship viewed across institutional levels including leadership, research, teaching, development work, and student life. Also, the discussions moved beyond the institutional context into the viewpoints from external stakeholders including the policy community, industry, public and private organisations, and civil society. Our aim with this session is to share our findings with a wider public and discuss where it leaves us as students, researchers or managers in contemporary universities.


The notion of academic citizenship is intertwined with the values that guide our actions as colleagues within theuniversity and as educators, experts, critics, and problem-solvers promising beneficial outcomes to culture and society at large. In this session we inquire into the ways in which these complexities shape contemporary academia. We ask how academic practices themselves are constitutive of the complex dynamics of academic citizenship in times of transition. We aim to engage participants in an active discussion, approaching the issues at stake from diverseperspectives and contributing new questions to the debate, allowing voices from diverse disciplinary, cultural and
institutional backgrounds to shape the conversations about issues that will shape universities and higher education in
the future.

Participants will reflect on global and national discourses of academic citizenship in relation to higher education
including academic freedom, pedagogy, and university governance.
Educational/didactic relevance of the project
The workshop addresses timely discussions around the role and responsibility of universities and higher education in
society.