Academic Freedom, Social Responsibility, and the Need to Exercise Them with Sina Westa

In this episode, Felipe Sánchez interviews Onur Orkut, a doctoral researcher in higher education at Lancaster University. Onur discusses his research piece published as a working paper by CHERE@LU, where he engages in a fictional conversation with Uta Hagen, inspired by her book "Respect for Acting." They delve into the themes of acting, capital, and exclusion, exploring how acting techniques can be exclusive and how to make them more accessible. Onur also highlights the parallels between the acting world and academia, emphasizing the importance of looking behind the curtain and embracing authenticity.

In this episode, Janja Komljenovic talks with Elizabeth J. Cook, who is a Senior Analyst, Strategy and Performance at Edith Cowan University and a doctoral researcher in the PhD in Higher Education, Evaluation and Enhancement at Lancaster University. Elizabeth talks about her doctoral research, which developed and implemented a new relational employability approach for universities. She describes her conceptualisation of relational employability as a broader, holistic and interconnected understanding of employability that incorporates three equally important elements: (1) basic individualistic career development, career management and careers (getting into the workforce and having a successful career to benefit oneself); (2) humanistic interactions and contributions throughout careers; and (3) more-than-human interactions and contributions throughout careers. Elizabeth explains how she conducted this research, using design research methodology and mixed methods, and describes her publishing adventures while being a student at Lancaster, with some publishing tips that may benefit other doctoral researchers.

Amon Ezike is a PhD researcher in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. In this episode, Amon talks about bridging the cultural gaps among English Speaking International students in UK Higher Education. She talks about the cultural challenges faced by these students and how these challenges could be mitigated through the use of technology. In addition, she talks about the need for UK institutions and policymakers to understand and address such challenges faced by International during their educational journey to enhance their educational experience or capacity.

Paul Ashwin is a Professor of Higher Education, Head of the Educational Research Department at Lancaster University and Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education. His research is focused on the educational role of higher education. He is interested in how higher education curricula can be designed to help transform students' understanding of themselves and the world. He is also interested in the role of policies in shaping the education offered by higher education institutions. In this episode, Paul Ashwin discusses the arguments in his recent book.

Don Passey is a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. Don’s research interests include, but are not limited to the implementation and management of leading-edge technologies, teaching and learning outcomes that arise from them, and how technologies support different groups of learners. In this podcast, Don talks about his project on developing ongoing uses of technologies in post-compulsory education in the UK and Malaysia. In this study, Don and his colleague examined the use of technology for teaching and learning in times of continuous technological development. They revealed that innovation is an essential approach in this process. As a result of the project, Don and his colleague proposed a model for the implementation of educational technologies.