The Challenges and Potentials of Internationalisation
16-17 September 2015
The Global Urban Higher Education symposium, held on the 16th to 17th of September 2015, was organised by UCL’s Urban Lab, which is a university-wide interdisciplinary initiative aimed to bring scholars interested in ‘the urban’ together. They promote critical, creative and independent thinking, and recognise the importance of international innovative comparative urbanism – emphasised through the Urban Lab+ initiative. Urban Lab+ was funded by the Erasmus Mundus Programme for three years (ending November 2015) and was composed of 8 established Urban Laboratories worldwide.
Across two days, the Symposium addressed critical questions on interdisciplinarity, intercultural learning, and practice-orientation (i.e. employability skills) in urban higher education.
Wednesday afternoon kicked off with an introduction by Urban Lab Director, Dr. Ben Campkin followed by another welcome from Co-Director Dr. Andrew Harris. They discussed the main objectives of the Urban Lab+ network (such as encouraging collaboration and partnership, influencing education and professional practice, raising dialogue about urban inclusion and exclusion and promoting comparative studies) and gave a brief guideline to the symposium programme.
The day was broken down into two sets: presentations from Urban Lab+ partner universities, and – following a brief break – a Panel of six distinguished scholars discussing the challenges and opportunities of the internationalisation of Urban Higher Education.
The presentations raised a number of points on the neoliberalisation of Higher Education, and how this is changing the purpose and functions of HE. An underlying theme within each speaker’s presentation was the relationship between theory and practice, and the kind of professional practices HE should be providing for their students. There was a strong awareness on the changing nature of HE and the pressures that it places on academic institutions, as well as the need for Universities to be agents of change in their social contexts.
Another area of focus was the idea of ‘Engaged urbanism’, in which it was recognised that community engagement requires emotional commitment, substantive practice-resources such as time and funding, strong partnerships, communication and on-going evaluation and engagement.
Inter-cultural learning was also brought into question, as to whether this was in fact just academics speaking the same language all over the world, rather than actual intercultural exchange.
The presentations provided a fantastic start to the conference, as it presented case studies and work from all over the world, while simultaneously demonstrating the fundamental obstacles and challenges that urban studies face in light of the huge changes seen in the HE sector. There was a clear consensus that new ways of teaching and redefining interdisciplinary goals need to be sought, and that students and the wider community need to be a part of that initiative.
The Panel of five scholars[1] began at 18:00 after another brief break. One of the main considerations brought out by members of the panel was that the internationalisation of Higher Education is not developing on an equal playing field, and that with it are apparent concerns of conflict and social exclusion. As such there is a need to appreciate the importance of not asserting Western hegemonic authoritative knowledge, but rather realise that new and innovative knowledge may be emerging from more obscure institutions and centres, should they be recognised as valuable within the global arena.
The discussion also called for the need to deal with contemporary and real urban challenges, and ensure that planning is not just used as an instrument to powerful interests. The concept of ‘partnerships with equivalence’, which is understood as an important strategy to tackle political inequality and address the way power relations are distributed, was introduced by Caren Levy. She discussed the need to create conditions for (a) co-learning that is responsible and reciprocal; and (b) co-production of knowledge related to understanding and acting in the city with mutual respect and recognition.
The evening ended with questions on how to train students for a global urban practice, and how to develop a good understanding of the range of complexities that impact outcomes. The idea of engaging with different contexts, recognition of power relations within urban planning, commitment to partnerships, and slow patient work over time, were raised as approaches that should be used to build knowledge.
The following day continued with the same tone, in that urban knowledge needs to be co-created by recognising urban knowledge requires exploring spaces beyond academia. Andrew Harris spoke of how ‘we need to think carefully of how we collaborate and create exchanging’ and that the process is ‘never a neutral process’. Communication was seen as a key issue in this regard.
After a range of very inspiring discussions, the consensus between those presenting was promising. With case studies and examples from across the globe, questions based on power relations in urban governance and planning; concerns regarding the marketization of academia and how that will impact students; the need to address contemporary concerns rather than the classic big narrations; and the importance of multiple voices and equality within the internationalisation agenda were central.
[1] Jane M Jacobs [Yale-NUS College], Caren Levy [UCL], Alan Penn [UCL], Jenny Robinson [UCL] and Kasama Yamtree [Community Architects Network]