Life purposes : Comparing higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands and Finland

Universities worldwide are beginning to counter the prevailing neo-liberal ideology by paying renewed attention to the moral development of students and fostering their life purposes. This mixed methods study investigates the life purposes of higher education students in four institutions in the Netherlands (nDutch=663) and Finland (nFinnish=846). Based on quantitative data, we identified four purpose profiles: purposeful, self-oriented, dreamer, and disengaged. Qualitative data showed that students’ willingness to contribute to a better world was not particularly prominent. An exception was found in the data of a Dutch research university working with a specific worldview and value base and emphasizing moral education. We conclude that universities need to put more effort into educating young professionals whose life purpose goes beyond their self-interest and who are willing and able to address pressing societal and global problems. This particularly includes professionals in the domains of technology and economy.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Leadership for change

This edited volume reveals how the journey of transformation at the University of the Free State (UFS) became interwoven with student leadership development and global learning. The UFS initiated two intersecting co-curricular programmes, namely, the First-Year Leadership for Change (F1L4C) programme in 2010; and the triennial Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in 2012. Although these programmes changed over time, their core focus remained to be the development of transformational student leaders through the creation of global learning spaces. From its inception in 2010 to the last GLS in 2018, the UFS global learning project involved 780 students and 259 staff members from 109 institutions, across four continents. The goal of this edited volume is to create a deeper understanding of how the UFS F1L4C and GLS programmes enhanced student leadership development through global learning, especially in the context of higher education transformation

Leadership for change

This edited volume reveals how the journey of transformation at the University of the Free State (UFS) became interwoven with student leadership development and global learning. The UFS initiated two intersecting co-curricular programmes, namely, the First-Year Leadership for Change (F1L4C) programme in 2010; and the triennial Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in 2012. Although these programmes changed over time, their core focus remained to be the development of transformational student leaders through the creation of global learning spaces. From its inception in 2010 to the last GLS in 2018, the UFS global learning project involved 780 students and 259 staff members from 109 institutions, across four continents. The goal of this edited volume is to create a deeper understanding of how the UFS F1L4C and GLS programmes enhanced student leadership development through global learning, especially in the context of higher education transformation

Keep the Flow: Citizen Science as Agonistic Learning

This paper addresses the transformative and emancipatory potential of citizen science not only concerning its role in groundwater management, but also regarding its contribution to enhanced and sustainable well-being. Our work is in the Hout Catchment region of the Limpopo province in South Africa where living conditions vary greatly, but all share a vulnerable dependency on the dwindling availability of water. We propose that the interaction between human water systems and its contextual social dimensions with regard to diversity and historically shaped structures of power has had serious impacts on the ability to tackle challenges of sustainable water management. In our project, citizen scientists markedly expanded data collection and analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional scientific endeavours. Keep the Flow is not simply about effectively using measurement instruments, but also about practices of authentic learning through innovative methodologies that were used to communicate with citizens about science and with scientists about social transformation and well-being. In our workshops, we used art as a bridge. Citizen science takes place in agonistic learning spaces in which historical and geopolitical circumstances that have resulted in an uneven playing field for its participants were acknowledged. We begin by introducing the project, then we discuss plural understandings of citizen science and present our stakeholders. We subsequently examine our own citizen science approach as agonistic learning, which brings us to ideas of entanglement and meshwork. We then present our participatory action research methodology and the go-to tools we use in in agonistic learning spaces, followed by our conclusions