Focus for 2023-24 LTExChange Symposia Series: “The Connected University”

Universities and educators have had to adapt to the demands of changing patterns of work and student learning, with the enactment of academic practice occurring across a multitude of inter-connected, digital, and physical environments. Relatedly, emerging innovations in digital technology are rapidly shifting expectations, practices, and discourse around what matters most in effective curriculum and learning design, necessarily extending the locus of student learning experiences beyond the classroom, placing particular emphasis on nurturing social connection and responsible action. In response, as educators our learning and teaching designs increasingly need to be enacted as ‘more than digital’ (Gourlay, 2023) in being flexible and networked, agile and connected, engaging students and staff as partners in authentic practice communities that recognise and equip students with the skills to function in culturally diverse environments. Such connectivity encourages students to respect and value differences, while being able to critically reflect on, and practically work with, local and global perspectives within and across specific disciplines. Indeed, it has never been more important for universities to take an affirmative, open position on the (possible) future(s) of higher education provision and the multiplicity of connections to people, place, and community it affords.

The annual LTExChange Symposia Series will bring together and engage key stakeholders to support new thinking and share practice innovations as we consider what it means to be a truly “Connected University” in what is an increasingly uncertain higher education landscape. Through the series we will be considering, more specifically, what it means for the university, staff and students to be ‘globally connected’ and how we can prepare our staff and students to adapt and develop ‘socially and ethically engaged’ approaches to learning that will meet future challenges.

The 2023-24 Symposium series aims to provide designated space and scope for interrogating a range of theoretical and applied interpretations and perspectives and generating collaborative, reflexive discussions, and debate.

2023-24 LTExChange Symposia Series

LTExChange Symposium 2: Wednesday 28th February 2024 – “Connected Communities – Learner Relationships in Global Higher Education” – Professor Monika Foster (Northumbria University).

Globally Connected learning: Developing Learner Relationships in Global Higher Education, a Critical Pedagogy.

By Professor Monika Foster, Head of Department of Marketing, Operations and Systems, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University

In a rapidly evolving and highly topical field of globally connected education, internationalisation strategies call for maximising the benefits of a diverse campus and preparing our students for a multicultural and interconnected world (Shuessler, 2020, Stein, 2019). Furthermore, universities’ mission to respond to societal changes, paired with an increased competition for talent and the undeniable need for collaboration on a global scale, provide an impetus to develop curriculum solutions for equitable, inclusive, and critical learning which is relevant to students’ current and future personal, social, and professional lives (Adichie, 2009, Hunter, 2008; Ortiz et al, 2020¬).

Drawing upon principles and theory of international education, diversity, and relationship science, as well as critical pedagogy (Killick and Foster, 2021, McArthur, 2010; Miller, 1986; Wink, 2005), this keynote, will explore how we can maximise the benefits of diversity on programmes of study by relationship development among diverse students in diverse contexts. Using research-informed examples, we will explore designing and facilitating critical academic practice to enable students to enact relationships with cultural others, engage in critical dialogue, explore diverse perspectives, and learning collaboratively to develop confidence and critical capabilities.

To book a place on this session please click here