The global mobility of students is on the rise and the recruitment of international students is high on the agenda of institutions in higher education. By communicating a distinctive corporate identity on their websites, universities can distinguish themselves from competitors and generate a positive image to attract talented international…

In this theoretical paper, we reflect on the optimistic neoliberal fantasies that are played out in today's education, even though that they rarely live up to their promises. Inspired by Lauren Berlant's concept of cruel optimism, and psychoanalytical thinkers as Slavoj Žižek and Ilan Kapoor, and their focus on concepts such as fantasy, desire,…

This article combines Bourdieusian practice with narrative sociomaterial theory to investigate what story of higher education and its purpose is being conveyed to students. Our case study revolves around a Danish university. We conduct a sociomaterial analysis of three university sites: an information day for prospective students, a video of a…

The concept of 'aesthetic labour' is relatively new in work-life research. It focuses on how service organisations utilise the physical appearance and personality of employees to support a particular business brand. In this way, employees are used as part of a differentiation marketing strategy. Whereas much of the research in aesthetic labour…

The Danish free school tradition has entailed a large degree of associational freedom for non-governmental schools, religious as well as non-religious. Until the late 1990s, the non-governmental schools were under no strict ideological or pedagogical limitations; they could recruit teachers and students according to their own value base, and were…

In a context of considerable interest in apprenticeship in recent years, Cedefop and the OECD decided to explore its future from the perspective of a number of megatrends, including sociodemographic changes, the accelerated adoption of emerging technologies and new forms of work organisation. They also considered how these trends have affected,…

The paper presents the case of international higher education in Denmark from 1999 to recent political moves to limit international student recruitment. Building on concepts adopted from theories on nationalism, the authors trace the origins of an anti-internationalisation discourse to the 2000s. An analysis of documents produced by universities,…

Attracting the best students into universities is a policy agenda driven by the state and universities in Estonia and Denmark. While the policy of internationalization of higher education (IoHE) in Estonia and Denmark is well crafted in the policy and academic domains, the value additions international graduates add to the learning environments…

In this paper, the authors discuss the rationale behind making talent development at the PhD, post-doctoral and early career levels an equal fourth pillar of the university's mission, alongside the more traditional pillars of the triple helix. Using Denmark and Aarhus University as a case study, the paper describes how increased institutional…

This paper discusses how to increase the diversity of engineering education by making it more relevant and gainful for all students, as well as more attractive to women. Questions were raised whether, and in which ways the problem-based and project-based learning (PBL) method is apt for increasing gender diversity from both the quality and the…

This article describes the results of a workshop that was held in Valencia during the annual conference of SEFI in 2004. The authors give remarks on the results supported by relevant and recent research. In the workshop, where about 35 participants were present, the following questions were discussed and answered: Which factors indicate that an…

The Swedish policy that work experience can be used as a substitute for formal academic entrance requirements for higher education is assessed. The social and economic background of introducing work experience in higher education policy is described, and the significance of work experience to enrollment patterns and for the form and content of…

This is the eighth report from the Danish National Institute of Social Research on the longitudinal survey of a generation of adolescents' educational and occupational choices. Presented in Danish, the study also contains an abstract and summary in English. The report analyzes important fields of youth education sought by…