The Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER) is a community of researchers in the field of higher education which meets each year to share new research insights and explore new research frontiers. Participants are encouraged to present and discuss research-based analyses instead of merely describing a project or offering reflections on a specific theme.
The overall theme of the 2008 Conference is excellence and diversity in higher education. The quest for excellence and claims of being excellent are widespread in today’s higher education. At least two factors seem to explain this state of affairs. On the one hand, excellence in teaching and research is considered to give a crucial contribution to competitiveness promoting or supporting both regional and national economic development in the global economy in terms of highly qualified skills, new knowledge, leadership, and innovation. On the other hand, excellence is seen as a key resource for higher education institutions’ development in a more open and competitive environment in terms of gains from knowledge transfer, enrolments, prestige in the scientific community, and in the public at large. Further, pursuing excellence, and producing diversity both within singles institutions and among institutions, are thought to be two strictly linked phenomena in mass higher education systems. The CHER Conference aims at taking a deeper and critical look on the topic dismantling and complementing this picture. In order to do so, three main questions are raised: What is excellence? What is excellence for? How can excellence be developed in mass higher education? Participants are encouraged to address these questions presenting and discussing research-based analyses, and assuming a multi-level approach and a comparative perspective.
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