Progression på tid og på tværs. Fremdrift og fleksibilisering som styringsregime på de videregående uddannelser

Med den kommende studiefremdriftsreform følger både krav om hurtigere gennemførelse og en fleksibilisering af systemet, der skal lette meritoverførslen og gøre det nemmere at sammenstykke en uddannelse på tværs af institutioner og uddannelser. Artiklen diskuterer de nye tiltag som en bestemt styring af de studerendes uddannelsesnavigation: Hvad sker der, når vi giver den enkelte studerende større frihed til at sammensætte uddannelse på tværs af moduler, der ikke har nogen på forhånd tilrettelagt (faglig) progression mellem sig? Vil den øgede valgfrihed medvirke til at motivere de studerende, højne gennemførelsen og gøre dem mere arbejdsmarkedsparate, sådan som regeringen fremlægger det? Og er prisen i givet fald en fragmentering af viden og instrumentel overfladelæring blandt de studerende, sådan som kritikerne foreslår?  The aim of the so-called ‘speed-up’ reform is to cut the time available for students to complete their university studies. One consequence of the reform is the increased requirement for flexibility within the Danish higher education system. To cope with the reform, the system will need to facilitate transfer of credits and make it easier for students to compose more personalized learning portfolios, which can include courses from different institutions and study programmes. The article discusses the possible implications of this new approach to steering students through the higher education system: What happens when we allow the individual student to compose a personal profile from different modules with no intentional progression between them? Will the students’ increased freedom serve to motivate them, make them complete their studies more quickly and make them more fit for the labour market like the Danish government presumes? Or will this be at the expense of leaving students with fragmented knowledge and superficial understandings as suggested by the critics

Studerende i en fremdriftstid: Prioriteter, valg og dilemmaer set i lyset af fremdriftsreformen

Rapporten præsenterer resultaterne af den første samlede undersøgelse af fremdriftsreformens betydning, set med studerendes øjne. Rapporten bygger på en omfattende spørgeskemaundersøgelse blandt 4.354 universitetsstuderende, som er blevet bedt om at vurdere, hvordan de fremover vil disponere deres tid i lyset af de øgede gennemførelseskrav. Spørgeskemaundersøgelsen er gennemført i april 2015.Rapporten fremlægger således en række nye indsigter i studerendes prioriteringer og valg. Både i relation til studiefremdriftsreformen og en række andre rammevilkår, som har betydning for studerendes liv og læringsudbytte – og dermed også for det samfund, som de videregående uddannelser bidrager til at skabe.Rapporten indgår i et politisk uafhængigt forskningsprojekt, som er finansieret af Forskningsrådet for Kultur og Kommunikation (FKK)

Risikonavigation i fremdriftsstormen

In Greek mythology, the hero Odysseus receives a gift of the world’s wind in a carefully tied sack. Only one favorable tailwind was free to blow his ship safely home. But in the course of the night, the other winds are released with catastrophic consequences for Odysseus’ fleet, resulting in multiple wrecks. In the article we take the myth about Odysseus and the winds as a picture of students’ educational navigation after the Danish Study progress reform (2013). We show how the reform was initially characterized by an unambiguous belief that it is possible to tether and align the various motives and reasons for studying (winds), all while in practice the students translate the reform’s demand for quick completion in a number of unforeseeable ways. With the concept of “risk translation” we show how the students’ navigations is not just a question of fast completion, but also of protecting a number of often enjoyable, study activities, constituting  a good study life. The analysis in this article is built upon a country-wide questionnaire among approximately 4500 university students (2015), along with a series of focus group interviews with students at the University of Copenhagen (2013-2016)

Higher Education Futures:Part 5

In this section, five authors reflect on Sue Wright's academic trajectory, her work in creating disciplinary and interdisciplinary networks and her engagement – as both an activist and scholar – in institutional change-making. They also reflect on her research on university reform, neoliberalisation and higher education futures