This conference titled, Turbulent Times: Organizing the Future of Higher Education for Resilience and Responsibility, brings together doctoral students, researchers, higher education practitioners, institutional leaders, and policymakers from around the world to examine how higher education systems and university institutions can respond to global volatilities with resilience and responsibility.

A distinctive feature of the conference is its emphasis on organisational and management perspectives in higher education research. The conference positions universities not simply as educational institutions or policy actors, but as complex organisations operating within volatile global environments.

We therefore seek to foreground questions of organisational resilience and change; governance and strategy; innovation; leadership; decision-making; and ethical responsibility in times of uncertainty and disruption.

The conference will provide points of inspiration and create an interdisciplinary space connecting higher education research with organisation studies, and also with other disciplines such as economics; politics; international development; policy studies and digital technologies.

In doing so, we seek to encourage new understandings about how higher education institutions across the world organise, govern, and sustain themselves amid global turbulence and rapid social change.

Intended audience

We welcome contributions from:

Doctoral students and early-career researchers, particularly those from the DBA HEM community
Mid- and late-career scholars
Higher education practitioners and professional staff
University leaders and administrators
Policymakers and government agencies

Conference programme

The ICHEM 2027 conference will include:

Keynote plenaries
Policy and leadership panels
Research paper sessions where contributors will present submitted work
Conference buffet dinner and live music

Important dates

Submission

The submission portal is now open
Submission deadline: 30 January 2027
Please submit by sending your abstract to ichemconf@bath.ac.uk
Notification of decisions: end February 2027

Registration

Conference registration deadline: 1 May 2027

Conference themes

The conference has four broad themes centred on higher education’s relationships with society, the natural environment, governance and technology:

This theme explores the changing nature of international higher education and its relationship with society in a context of social responsibilities, geopolitical instability and shifting ecosystem dynamics.

We encourage critical and strategic perspectives on how institutions can develop accountability to their local communities and sustain responsible global engagement under conditions of uncertainty and fragmentation.

Questions of inclusion and equity are also increasingly central to debates about the future of higher education. We are particularly interested in the social responsibilities of higher education institutions within their communities, both locally and globally.

Possible topics:

The future of internationalisation
Student and staff mobility
Transnational education and branch campuses
Research collaboration under geopolitical tension
Gender and racial diversity in academia
International partnerships and ethical engagement
Academic freedom and global cooperation
Decolonial perspectives and epistemic justice
Regionalization and diversification strategies
International recruitment and social justice
Disability and neurodiversity inclusion and accessibility
Student well-being and belonging
Campus activism and protest
Local and regional collaboration
Inclusive pedagogies, learning environments and assessment
Widening participation and lifelong learning
Humanitarian roles of universities in war and conflict
Social impact measurement
Universities, autocracies and democratic resilience

Environmental responsibilities and resilience

This theme explores both the universities’ responsibilities to protect the natural environment, developing a sustainable relationship with socioecological systems as well as its resilience within a disrupted context of environmental change, involving significant disturbance for many higher education campuses and educational ecosystems.

Sustainability commitments have been widely signalled by many universities, however in an age of accelerating climate warming, these engagements do not appear to keep up with the imperative or have yet to create significant impact.

Meanwhile, many universities across the world are increasingly vulnerable, facing higher risks of operational disruption due to the increasing rate of extreme weather events, rising sea-levels and pollution.

Possible topics:

SDGs as a framework for university sustainability in different geographic contexts
Tensions for sustainability within internationalisation strategies
Sustainability impact measures and metrics
Greenwashing and university virtue signally
Environmental harms and neo-liberal epistemes circulating in universities
Climate instability and the resilience of higher education systems to crises
Organisational resilience and institutional adaptation
Crisis governance and institutional learning
The role of universities in addressing global environmental challenges
Institutional responses to uncertainty and systemic shocks

Governance, policy responses and organisational change

How universities manage themselves in turbulent times requires a responsiveness to new regulations and policy frameworks. Governments introduce new policies that shape university’s strategy where new organisational approaches are required to address uncertainty, inequality, technological change, mobility issues and global competition.

This theme foregrounds organisation studies and management perspectives in understanding how higher education institutions respond to constraints and complexity in ever-changing environments.

Possible topics:

Evidence-based policy
Comparative higher education policy
Governance reforms and accountability
Rankings, metrics and compliance
Organisational resilience and institutional adaptation
Leadership, committees and the practice of strategic university management
Funding and financial sustainability
Regulatory responses to digitisation and AI
Crisis governance and institutional learning
Due diligence and strategic imagination
Intra-organisational dynamics and disciplinary relationships
Organisational identity and legitimacy
Global competition and strategic positioning
Policy responses to geopolitical risks
University investments and ethical accountability
Research security and knowledge diplomacy

Technologies and the transformation of learning

Digital technologies and AI are reshaping teaching, learning, administration, and research across higher education systems.

The conference is particularly interested in how digitisation intersects with how we organise higher education ecosystems and how digitization facilitates and inhibits matters of inclusion, governance, institutional resilience, and educational quality and integrity.

Possible topics:

AI and its effects on the human mind and learning
Digitisation and the future of traditional higher education ecosystems
The future of work and preparing to contribute to a digital age
The lifetime value of a digitized university education
Digital transformation and institutional strategy
Online and hybrid learning models
Data insights and organisational capabilities
Data governance and digital ethics
Technology and the student experience
The university and cybersecurity
Digital inequality and access
AI, integrity and doctoral writing
Platformisation of higher education ‘services’

Submission formats

We welcome contributions from doctoral research students and practitioners as well as academic faculty. We particularly welcome innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives that make links to the conference themes and connect higher education research with organisation studies, management, governance, and policy analysis.

Submissions may include:

Research papers, including conceptual or empirical studies
Policy and practice papers or case studies

Please submit an abstract of your presentation for consideration by the organising committee. It should be a maximum of 800 words excluding references and should clearly outline the purpose or research question, the methodology or approach and key arguments or findings.

Review process

Submissions will be evaluated on their relevance to the conference themes; originality and significance; clarity of argument; and potential for contribution to research, policy or practice.

For enquiries, please contact: ichemconf@bath.ac.uk.