Realising the educational potential of mass higher education - with guest speaker Paul Ashwin
- Date
- Tuesday 30 June 2026, 9:30-14:00
- Location
- Hybrid (in person and online)
- Book your place
- Click here to book your place
In marketized higher education systems, there is a disillusionment with mass higher education. In this seminar, I will argue that, in order to address this disillusionment, we need to refocus on the educational potential of mass higher education. Based on a seven-year longitudinal study that tracked participants from their first year of university to up to three years after graduation, I will argue that the educational potential of mass higher education lies in the ways that it brings students into relationship to bodies of knowledge that change their way of engaging with the world. This involves taking students inside knowledge so that they can understand how it is relevant for their engagement with the world. For the educational potential of mass higher education to be realised, graduates need contexts that support them to further explore the ways of engaging with the world that have developed through their undergraduate degrees.
Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education, Lancaster University. Paul’s research focuses on the educational role of higher educationHis latest co-authored, open-access, book, Realising the Educational Potential of Mass Higher Education, addresses the current disillusionment with mass higher education and argues that it is based on a profound misunderstanding of its educational potential. He is the lead author on Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (2015, 2020, 2025 ) written by an international team to support the development of research-informed university teaching, joint Editor-in-Chief of the international journal ‘Higher Education,’ and co-editor of two Bloomsbury book series: ‘Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education’ and ‘Enhancing Reflective Teaching in Higher Education’.
- 10:00-11:30 - Talk by Paul Ashwin (hybrid)
- 12:00-13:30 - Seminar (in person, University of Leeds colleagues only)
Lunch and refreshments will be provided for in-person attendees.