Program

Monday 8 December 10:00-15:30 – Room: Pav B room 156, Dragvoll

Tuesday 9 December 09:00-15:30 – Room: Pav B room 156, Dragvoll

Wednesday 10 December 09:00-15:30 – Room: Pav B room 156, Dragvoll

 
The three days will be organized as a seminar with readings and discussions on the course theme and the participants’ work. Participants and course leaders will take turns in leading the readings and discussions, fostering a sense of shared responsibility and contribution. The course leaders will also give introductions that bring central aspects and concepts to our attention.

Further details and information on program, preparation, assignments and readings will be distributed to the registered participants.

Deadline for registration: 5 November

Course content

Academia changes - it always has.
 

The changes that we experience today have fostered higher education researchers to critically question the consequences for organization, imagination and implementation of teaching and learning practices, societal aims and impact, as well as the very underlying principles of higher education.

 
Are higher education institutions still recognizable as academic institutions?

How valid are the historical, e.g. the Humboldtian, models of higher education?

What understanding of knowledge is promoted through higher education practices?

What kind of society is higher education contributing to?

In this PhD course we aim to address key perspectives on ideas and practices of higher education in past, present and future. This means research perspectives that both ask what the university is for and in what ways we imagine a future for the university (or not), as well as research perspectives that address the actual practices of educating at universities. In this course we bring in national and international scholars and their ongoing research, and the specific topic of this year’s course is reading time and a reading university.

Compulsory assignment - before the course

Write a letter addressed to the participants in the course, where you try to explain to us a phenomenon, issue, or concept you are currently trying to understand in your PhD project. We want your text to be an attempt to articulate and open up something that is more or less unclear or unresolved in your thinking right now. Submit your draft by email to Dagrun Engen, deadline: 1. December 2025

Evaluation, course credits and participation

Attendance on campus is mandatory. Submission after the seminar of a final paper (max. 10 pages) within the realm of the course content and relating to the course literature.

Admission to PhD courses

Admission requirements

To be admitted to our PhD courses, you must have completed your master’s degree or equivalent education.

You also need to apply to PhD courses via NTNU Søknadsweb, and upload required documentation (diploma etc.).

NTNU students and PhD students admitted to PhD programs at NTNU apply for admission by registering for class via NTNU's studentweb.

Information about PhD courses for external candidates

NTNU Søknadsweb for external candidates

Contact

Contact Ragnhild Berge if you would like to apply for the course. 

Core reading

• Dall’Alba, G. (2020). “Toward a Pedagogy of Responsive Attunement for Higher Education”. Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 21-43
• FitzPatrick B, Chong M, Tuff J, Jamil S, Al Hariri K, Stocks T (2024). "More than words: PhD students and critical reading". Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 15 No. 3 pp. 306–322, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-06-2023-0050
• Greene, Maxine. 1978. “Teaching: The Question of Personal Reality”, Teachers College, Columbia University. 80/1
• Grant, Barbara. (2022) “The Future Is Now: A Thousand Tiny Universities.” Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education Volume 1, Issue 3. 9–28. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1169726.
• Ingold, T. (2020). "On Building a University for the Common Good". Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, Volume 2, Issue 1, pp. 45-68
• Iser, W. (1978). “The Phenomenology of Reading”. The act of reading : a theory of aesthetic response. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp 107-159
• Jiménez, J. (2020). “Finding Moments of Studying: Being a Studier in the University”. Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education, Volume 2, Issue 3, pp. 31-48
• Lenzen, D. (2015). On the Genesis of Three Distinct University Systems in the Post-Secondary Sector. In: University of the World. Springer, Cham. 19-21 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13455-0_4

Core readings that are not accessible online will be sent to registered participants by email.

Additional reading

• Alvesson, M. (2013). The triumph of emptiness. Consumption, higher education and work organization. Oxford University Press.
• Barnett, Ronald. "Knowing and becoming in the higher education curriculum" (2009). Studies in higher education, 34(4), 429-440.
• Bengtsen, Søren and Ronald Barnett. (2017). "Confronting the dark side of higher education." Journal of Philosophy of Education 51.1: 114-131.
• Biggs, J.B. and Tang, C.S. (2011). ‘Effective teaching and learning for today’s universities’. Teaching for Quality Learning at University, p. 1-16
• Dakka, F. (2021) ‘Rhythm and the Possible: Moments, Anticipation and Dwelling in the Contemporary University’, in Inquiring into Academic Timescapes (Filip Vostal ed.), Emerald publisher.
• GREENE, M. (1987). FREEDOM, EDUCATION, AND PUBLIC SPACES. CrossCurrents, 37(4), 442–455. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24459371
• Magnússon, G., & Rytzler, J. (2018). Approaching higher education with Didaktik: university teaching for intellectual emancipation. European Journal of Higher Education, 9(2), 190–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2018.1515030
• Nuriler H, Bengtsen SS (2024), "The entangled becoming in humanities doctoral education". Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 15 No. 3 pp. 225–239, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-08-2023-0074
• von Humbolt, W. (2000) Theory of Bildung. In Wesbury, I., Hopman, S., & Riquerts, K. (Eds.) Teaching as a Reflective practice The German Tradition, Routledge.