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Elevating Higher Education public policies: an empowering SPRIngboard

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HESPRI (Elevating Higher Education public policies: an empowering SPRIngboard)

Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2024-12-31

The current world of higher education (HE) has been shaped by two forces: the humanistic traditions of university governance and the neo-liberal reforms of the past thirty years. With its successes and discontents, this hybrid system faces major crises that affect its ability to respond to the needs of society: the tension between traditional and neo-liberal academic values; the biased evaluation and assessment of quality in higher education; the ineffectiveness determined by the distorted measurements of scientific achievements and other factors; the recent digital transformations of the universities facing the pandemic. To face these challenges, HESPRI addresses innovative strategies to strengthen public policies and improve the competitiveness of the HE sector. Specific objectives and originalities, and a well-designed R&I work plan (4 scientific WPs and 2 support WPs) are proposed for achieving this main goal: comparing a range of national HE systems worldwide as a function of cultural practices, for revealing tensions between various categories of values, shaped by global tendencies; exploring, defining and comparing quality in HE in different contexts, in order to provide innovative and advanced methodology; bringing the collective voice of science into the policymaking process in HE, by looking at how disciplinary and national differences affect governance; analysing technology-enhanced higher education environments, beyond the state of the art, around three pillars - digitalisation, metaverse and open science, on specific emerging research topics. Relying on a world-class and culturally diverse consortium, HESPRI aims to provide evidence-based recommendations for governments, policymakers and universities, to adjust various components in trend with recent provocations. The project incorporates global digitalisation trends, and is tightly connected with world-wide and European strategies and programmes, such as the UN global policies of SDGs.
In the first period of implementation (2023-2024), HESPRI research activities progressed as planned, as described below, and secondments (137 completed out of 156 planned) were implemented to support them.

• WP1 researchers completed the methodological framework for the comparative analysis of higher education systems, based on research exchanges and a dedicated workshop. The comparative analysis itself resulted in a complex report on nine national higher education systems, and the HESPRI team exchanged on the progress in approaching transversal topics and methodology adjustments during a common thematic workshop.
• WP2 researchers completed the list of innovative quality indicators for higher education, and conducted qualitative data collection (interviews) in several national/institutional contexts, in order to test and develop the renewed quality indicators. An international conference was organized in the first year of implementation.
• WP3 researchers focused primarily on preparing and conducting the fieldwork, establishing pilot groups, and organizing an international workshop. The team developed (and translated in national languages) all research tools, and conducted the main part of the data collection (questionnaires and interviews). The research progress and the next steps have been extensively presented and discussed during an international workshop.
• WP4 researchers finalized the systematic review on gamified flipped classroom in higher education and a corresponding institutional case study, conducted and published a study on digital citizenship among university students, and engaged in cross-institutional exchanges on open science practices in universities. The small-scale experimental study on the use of virtual reality was designed, and is planned to be finalized by the end of the third year of implementation. Two workshops (one international and one national) were organized in the first exchange period.

HESPRI consortium achieved as planned the milestones (Consortium and Partnership Agreement and Kick-off Meeting), as well as Data Management Plan V1 (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8101761) and Communication and Dissemination Plan (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8101836).
Results achieved so far enrich the methodological approaches in comparing higher education systems and provide novel insights into different institutional stakeholders’ perspectives on key processes and issues, and in defining innovative quality indicators of digitalisation, social inclusion and sustainability. Important steps were taken towards designing the piloting methodology for integrating the scientific associations into the higher education arena, and provide an inventory of the specific practices and the scientific language used by the scientific groups in their interaction with the other relevant actors and higher education policymakers. The systematic review on gamified flipped classroom in higher education, the institutional case-study, the research o digital citizenship, and the exchange on open science practices in universities provide a solid base for future policy recommendations.
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