Reimagining Higher Education
Description
Over the years, I have developed an active interest in how universities organise themselves around teaching, research and administration. I'm currently leading the Reimagining Higher Education in the Age of AI research cluster at Northeastern University London. The cluster's aim is to conduct and support research into probable and/or desirable futures of Higher Education, including the futures of teaching, research, recruitment and retention of staff, faculty and students, administration and organisation, employment relations and, more broadly, societal impact. Indicative research topics include personalised education, intelligent tutoring systems, co-creation and co-discovery with machines, virtual/augmented reality in the classroom, ed tech, reducing hierarchical structures in HE, experiential learning and continuous assessment. I recently co-organised (with Alice Helliwell, Julia Hofweber, Arthur M. Langer and Sara Raimondi) The Future of the Humanities: Reflective Practices in the Age of AI Conference (May 3rd and 4th 2024). We are currently in the process of producing an associated special issue in the Reflective Practice journal, with contributions from Hannes Leitgeb and Timothy Williamson, among others, on the Future of Philosophy.
A related pedagogical project I pursued earlier in my career was the creation of a digital education platform. Together with a number of colleagues at the New College of the Humanities, including Brian Ball, Fintan Nagle and Naomi Goulder, we initiated, designed and developed this platform with the financial backing of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and other supporters. The 'Digital Diploma', as we called it, was open to the public and free of charge. The content was created in such a way so as to provide accurate and intuitive accounts of material, arranged into easy-to-digest and self-contained chunks of information. It was meant to be accessible to anyone, i.e. from secondary school students to retirees. The objective was to empower individuals across society by providing them with the skills to critically engage in public debates as well as by demonstrating how these skills are applicable in a variety of contexts, including everyday life and science. Before it shut down due to a lack of continued funding, the platform carried units on Science Literacy (e.g. the history of computing) and Applied Ethics (e.g. the moral limits of the market). We hope to revive the platform at some point in the future, as well as to add considerable more content to it. With that in mind, we're open to working with interested organisations. Opportunities for collaboration include shared student experience, targeted course materials for particular audiences, or sponsorship of the Digital Diploma. If you are interested in discussing sponsorship or collaboration, please get in touch: ioannis.votsis(/a-t\)nulondon.ac.uk