The higher education sector has expanded rapidly in many countries in the recent three decades. The rapid growth was strongly supported through policy initiatives as well as market demands in the knowledge society. Although higher education receives political supports with these policy initiatives, we also witness how national and international politics are deeply involved in higher education institutions. In this regard, higher education institution as a social institution is suffering from “identity crisis” with the growing political involvement. Political regime tends to reduce public funding to higher education, and increase the share of competitive funding in most countries. These changes accelerated with the neoliberalism and globalization since the 1990s. However, policy mechanisms often become altered along with the change in political regime because national politics are increasingly becoming populism and strategic. These socio-political and economic changes accompany various issues and challenges.

The upcoming 7th HERA conference aims to focus on discussing how the changes in the global political economy have impacted on the academic community, national policy-making practice, academics’ contribution to societal development. Our first keynote speech highlights how regional politics have impacted in the region. Moreover, our second keynote speech focuses on higher education’s contribution to societal and economic development.

Based on these themes, the 7th HERA conference covers various topics related to theory, policy, and practices in the fields of higher education as follows:

• Policy and politics
• Funding and finance
• Governance, organization and reforms
• Research and Development (R&D)
• Institutional management and research (IR)
• Academic profession, students
• Curriculum and instruction
• Graduate education
• Internationalization
• Global rankings
• Other topics related to higher education

We welcome scholars, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to share their expertise and knowledge on the topic of higher education at the 7th HERA conference. Presenters might share their research in a research session or panel discussion session. For more information on the dates and venue of the conference, please refer to the below details.

If you wish to read this information in PDF format, please click Call for Paper (7th HERA 2020)