Modul 4: Presentation and General discussion

On behalf of REHES working group:

Christian Wassmer, ZHAW; Luca Tratschin, CHESS UZH

Abstract:

The REHES working group emerged from the CHESS project “Research on Higher Education and Science in Switzerland” and the first REHES meeting of the same name in September 2019 at the University of Bern. Its aim is to develop proposals for research topics and for the institutionalization of higher education and science studies in Switzerland. At the first REHES meeting in September 2019, representatives from various universities and disciplines gathered and discussed ideas and conceptions for topics and institutional forms of research on higher education and science. On this foundation, members of the REHES working developed a policy paper. At the workshop “Research on Universities and Science in Switzerland” on 10 and 11 September 2020 in Lausanne, we, as members of this group, would like to present the ideas to a wider academic audience in order to discuss and develop them further. Based on the situation and changes in the higher education and science system, the position paper presents opportunities for research on higher education and science in Switzerland. On this basis, we propose possible forms of institutionalisation and thematic orientations. The policy paper assumes that both the production of reflective as well as operational knowledge require a form of institutionalization that is, on the one hand, constituted by the scientific community itself and, on the other hand, disposes of an organizational interface with the actors who need the evidence-based knowledge produced and who include it in their decision-making processes. The task of an interface would be to bundle interests and ideas on the part of both the scientific community and the stakeholders and to organize communication in both directions.