Higher Education Speaker Series


17. September 2025, 15 Uhr (in Präsenz und via MS Teams-Livestream)
Prof. Gary Rhoades, Professor of Higher Education at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education
Titel: Universities' pursuit of increased productivity: To what purposes, in whose interests, and at what costs?
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams
Abstract:
So much of the pattern in higher education internationally has been the increased emphasis by government and university policymakers to manage postsecondary/tertiary organizations and their academic workforces for increased productivity. That has been characterized over the decades in many ways by various comparative higher education scholars. But the trendline is clear and widespread, including in the European context, for example, recently in the introduction of tenure tracks for academic employees. The overall trendline throughout the world often in some way invokes some vision and version of developments in the U.S., with their own particular and distinctive versions of seeking to enhance university productivity. Yet, to what larger purposes, in whose particular interests, and at what costs are such efforts and policy initiatives undertaken? Drawing on examples from the U.S. as well as from other national contexts, from Europe and Latin America, I explore these questions in relation to how the pursuit of productivity plays out for nations, for higher education organizations, and for the academic workforce. The latter is important because at the center of efforts to counter such developments, calling for a higher education’s greater attention to its fundamental social missions are the academic employees who are being increasingly managed by national policy and university practices to achieve increased productivity according to particular, generally quantitative metrics.
Biosketch:
Gary Rhoades is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, of which he was Director for 19 years. Rhoades’ scholarship focuses on the restructuring of academic institutions and of academic labor, as in his books, Managed professionals: Unionized faculty and restructuring academic labor (SUNY Press, 1998), Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state, and higher education (co-authored with first author Sheila Slaughter) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), and Organizing professionals: Academic employees negotiating a new academy (Rutgers University Press, 2025). From his years as a postdoctoral scholar in Burton R. Clark’s Comparative Higher Education Research Group at UCLA, Rhoades has throughout his career researched and contributed to the comparative higher education literature, often with international colleagues, including, among others, Simon Marginson, Barbara Sporn, Bjorn Stensaker, and Jussi Valimma.
Rückblick

4. Juni 2025, 15:00 CET
John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow - Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE)
Vortragstitel: US and Global Higher Education in the Trump Era
Die Kurzbio und weiterführende Informationen finden Sie hier.
Registration: verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

3. März 2025, 15:00 CET
Prof. Dr. Frank Ziegele, Geschäftsführer, CHE Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung
Vortragstitel: Dissolving Certainties and Emerging Identities: The Role of Science Management in Shaping the ‘Authentic University’
Die Kurzbio und weiterführende Informationen finden Sie hier.
Registration: verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

21. November 2024, 16 Uhr
Pedro N. Teixeira, Professor in Economics at the Faculty of Economics (University of Porto)
Titel: This time is different? The impact of AI on graduate employment and its implications for higher education
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

20. März 2023, 16 Uhr
Cláudia S. Sarrico, policy analyst at the OECD Science, Technology, and Innovation Directorate
Titel: Beyond the Ivory Tower: Navigating Diverse Career Paths for Emerging Research and Innovation Talent
Ein Abstract und eine Kurzbio finden Sie hier.
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

22. November 2023, 16 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Liviu Matei, Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy, Head of the King's School of Education, Communication & Society (ECS)
Titel: Academic freedom and institutional autonomy in Europe: diverging paths?
Abstract und Kurzbio finden Sie hier.
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

10. November 2022, 11 Uhr
Prof. Piet Naudé, Professor of Ethics and the immediate past Director of the University of Stellenbosch Business School
Vortragstitel: The future of management education: radical shifts, societal expectations, and the role of businesses
Die Kurzbio und weiterführende Informationen finden Sie hier.
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

18. Oktober 2022, 16 Uhr
Prof. Dr. Marijk van der Wende, Distinguished Faculty Professor of Higher Education an der Fakultät für Law, Economics and Governance der Universität Utrecht
Vortragstitel: Openness challenged university at risk?
Die Kurzbio und weiterführende Informationen finden Sie hier.
Anmeldungen per Mail an verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at
Livestream: via MS Teams

24. Juni 2022
Prof. Dr. Francisco O. Ramirez, Professor of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford University
Vortragstitel: Universities: From Historical Institutions to Organizational Actors?
Die Kurzbio von Prof. Ramirez finden Sie hier.
Anmeldung: verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at

3. Mai 2022
Prof. Bjørn Stensaker, Vizerektor für Lehre, Universität Oslo
Vortragstitel: Strategic university alliances - potential implications for competition and cooperation in the global higher education landscape
Eine Kurzbio von Prof. Stensaker finden Sie hier.
Anmeldung: verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at

24. März 2022
Prof. Dr. Tatiana Fumasoli, Leiterin des Centre for Higher Education Studies CHES, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London (UK)
Vortragstitel: The globally engaged university: organisational capacity and strategic positioning at times of Covid 19
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23. November 2021 - via MS Teams
Prof. Dr. Georg Krücken, ICHER-Kassel International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel
Vortragstitel: Multipler Wettbewerb im Hochschulsystem – Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven und wissenschaftspolitische Implikationen
Eine Kurzbiographie von Prof. Krücken und ein Abstract zum Vortrag finden Sie hier.
Anmeldung: verena.herbsthofer@wu.ac.at

20. Oktober 2021
Prof. Dr. Marijk van der Wende, Distinguished Faculty Professor of Higher Education an der Fakultät für Law, Economics and Governance der Universität Utrecht
Vortragstitel: Facing global change: Eurasian relations in higher education
Anmeldungen per Mail an
Livestream: via Youtube

The Cost of Global University…
John Aubrey Douglass is Senior…
Datum: 4.12.2019: Institut für Hochschulmanagement (D5)
Speaker: Prof. John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow and Research Professor - Public Policy and Higher Education Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California – Berkeley, USA
Vortragstitel: “The Cost of Global University Rankings and Envisioning an Alternative: The New Flagship University Model”

The New Silk Road: implications…
Recent geopolitical events such as…
Datum: 25.11.2019, Institut für Hochschulmanagement (D5)
Speaker: Prof. Marijk van der Wende, Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Vortragstitel: “The New Silk Road: implications for higher education and research cooperation between China and Europe”

Wettbewerbe in der Wissenschaft –…
Reformdebatten verändern…
Datum: 11.11.2019, LC Clubraum
Speaker: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jetta Frost, Lehrstuhl Organisation und Unternehmensführung, 2013-19 Vizepräsidentin der Universität Hamburg
Vortragstitel: “Wettbewerbe in der Wissenschaft – Exzellenzstrategie und Governance in Hochschulen“

The Future of Management…
The “Higher Education Speaker…
Datum: 8.10.2019, LC Clubraum
Speaker: Prof. Éric Cornuel, Präsident der European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), Brussels, Belgium
Vortragstitel: “The future of management education and research in a globalized and digital world”