A number of key drivers are responsible for the major shifts taking place in doctoral education globally, including massification, globalisation, digitalisation and the knowledge economy. While each of these drivers permeates the South African higher education context to some extent, we argue that the country's complex historical legacies provide…

It is clear that we have to do something in our time concerning global warming yet before we can actually change the world, we must first understand our world. According to Heidegger, technology itself is not good or bad, but the problem is, that technological thinking (calculative thinking) has become the only form of thinking. Heidegger saw that…

With the approach of constant changes and quality assurance in education, we have reached an optimum that no longer justifies all further investments in such changes, as the results of these investments are (and will be) minimal and insufficient. We have reached a stage where we must shift from evolution to revolution, from constant changes in…

The design studio is the core element in the design curriculum where students gain key knowledge and skills. Typically implementing a project-based approach, it is characterised by learning by doing, collaborative learning and a prominent studio culture. The traditional notion is that the social domain of the studio has a counterpart in the…

This essay examines the emergence of a new Zeitgeist that has profound implications for education, particularly in the US. Following the dominance of neoliberalism, changes in society are reviewed that have been identified by many authors from a number of disciplines that are becoming more influential including globalisation, digitalisation, the…

The nation is in the midst of a revolution in education. For the first time in human history, tools to enable everyone to attain all the education they desire are available. And best of all this education is available at almost no cost. The key to this sea of change in learning is open education resources, or OER. OER are educational materials…

The need for journalism curriculum reform is widely acknowledged in the United Kingdom, yet the wheels of the academy turn slowly. How are its journalism educators to resolve this dichotomy and meaningfully prepare their students for the realities of a fast-changing profession? This essay critically reviews an intervention designed to complement…

The recent protests across the Middle East, generally referred to as the largest civic uprising enabled by social media platforms and mobile technologies, are actively reshaping how one thinks about citizenship, community, and participation in the 21st Century. Within these new spaces have emerged voices--largely those of everyday citizens--that…

It is essential for higher education professionals to remain abreast of industry trends, emerging fields, and changing requirements that affect the job market and advanced education opportunities for new graduates. Equally important is a continual review of evolving strategies for success in the job search itself. Common practices in today's…

Engineers today cannot meet their professional obligation to the welfare of society if they do not have a broad, multidisciplinary vision, and yet a multidisciplinary vision is becoming enormously difficult to obtain. A new curriculum must emerge that can integrate a focused, discipline-based scientific approach with an integrated approach. To do…

Higher education is the linchpin of music education in North America. It is primarily in collegiate institutions that music teachers are educated throughout the life cycles of their careers. This begins with preservice programs, typically at the baccalaureate level, and continues with in-service professional development and graduate degree…

This critical essay discusses the challenges and prospects for the reform of school-based literacy programs. It begins with an overview of the effects of a decade of test-driven accountability policy on research and teachers' work, noting the continuing challenges of new demographics, cultures and technologies for literacy education. The case is…

Strong signs are indicating that higher education is finally on the verge of a long-awaited digital shift. Given that experts have been prophesying such a shift for more than forty years, with little if any real change, it's reasonable to approach such a statement with healthy skepticism. Various factors--some cultural, some technological--have…

Learning Cities and Learning Regions are terms now in common use as a result of the growing importance of lifelong learning concepts to the economic, social and environmental future of people and places. Why "learning" regions? Why not intelligent, creative, clever, smart or knowledge regions? In truth, all of these can, and some do,…

Changes in the kinds of technology used in modern society are changing the ways in which people think. Russian students, like those elsewhere, are increasingly thinking in terms of short, unconnected forms of knowledge and are losing the ability to see connections, to think holistically. This presents a special challenge to education in Russia.