Plenary Address by Robert Wilkinson: Abstract

ICLHE, looking forward backwards: A mixed metaphorical journey

Since ICLHE began 20 years ago, the higher education landscape has undergone a dramatic evolution. In this talk, I take a personal stance to reflect on contexts and themes pervading the “world” of higher education in the 1990s, out of which ICLHE emerged. Optimism is counterbalanced with pessimism, depending on the authors you choose to read. However, I take you on a personal journey further back to the “roots of the roots”, so to speak, to the conflicts and tensions that created a propitious petri dish for ICLHE. A long view may unravel the themes that ICLHE aims to address. There are lessons for today.

Higher education is continuing to change. Impacts affect not merely the direct actors, students and teachers, but the higher education institution as a whole, the role of governance, and its social, economic and political earth.

And looking forward, will future changes be more of the same? How will socio-technological developments shape and disrupt our cozy ICLHE bubble? I conclude my journey with speculative glances into the crystal ball, with five messages for the ICLHE future – but I cannot predict which will be fulfilled.