CHEF panel discussion (cancelled)

The aim of the event is to achieve a more nuanced and ‘realistic’ understanding of who the students are, and what a week of study looks like from a student perspective, discussed up against policy initiatives. For example we know from Danish and international studies that student activities and support networks far exceeds the institutional framework and formalised support systems, and that the students, to comply to the policy initiatives, rely on a wide range of extra-curricular (professional and private) partners, helpers, and support systems. Likewise, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background continue to play a pivotal role in the students’ approaches to curricular as well as extra-curricular activities. However, such knowledge does not easily align with the political discourse about students as actively engaged and ‘rational consumers’.  In its place it reveals that students also manifest profiles such as ‘survivors’, ‘rogues’ ‘gamblers’ and ‘cheaters’,  – and to some extend also ‘risk-takers’ and ‘explores’ - which show a different reality of the Danish higher education system than we are presented with in political strategies.

This CHEF-event takes the form of a panel discussion between three parties within the Danish higher education system: The policy level (panel members from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science), the student body (panel members from BA and MA programmes at Aarhus University), and the level of research and development into higher education (panel members from the Danish Network for Educational Development in Higher Education (DUN) and CHEF). Other participants are welcome to witness and take a part in the discussion.