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Sustainable development has become a momentous global concern since the end of the twentieth century. The 2015 adoption of the SDGs represents a significant challenge for higher education globally as it compels widescale consideration of how the sector will address the SDGs and contribute to the 2030 Agenda. Seven years after the adoption of the SDGs, therefore, it is important to investigate the extent of engagement and clarify opportunities for growth. This paper reports research into university engagement with and contributions to the SDGs, what has happened and been documented so far, and what plans university leaders have for future engagement. From the analysis of multi-source evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that contributions vary across and are fragmented within universities, not resourced or reported in systematic ways. It calls for a much broader research agenda in this area that focuses not just on specific substantive issues but looks broadly across a suite of countries, universities, evidence, and issues and articulates a comprehensive view on what has been achieved as well as areas for development.

The paper offers a synthesis of findings from an international initiative coordinated by the Asia Productivity Organisation (APO) to measure higher education productivity across nine Asian countries. The paper discusses benefits, barriers, and potential for estimating university productivity across international contexts. Stakeholders from nine participating countries collected and analysed institutional data and reported measurement results. The APO initiative represents the first multi-country test of an adapted productivity measurement model first advanced by the United States National Research Council (NRC). The research provides evidence for proof of concept of the adapted NRC model for use across international contexts. Additional findings demonstrate the range of productivity definitions and interpretations for higher education. The paper concludes by showing priority areas for both targeted and broad developments in research and practice of measuring productivity in higher education.

This paper discusses empirical comparisons of higher education institutions across world regions. It argues that institutional data systems have the potential for complementing global comparisons promoted by rankings by providing sensible information on institutional size, budgets, staffing, enrolments and activity profiles. With this perspective in hand, this paper tackles three questions. First, how is it feasible to identify Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) given their complex structures? Second, how is it feasible to define the perimeter of HEI sectors? Third, what kinds of data could be used for comparison, and where are the main data gaps? By analysing institutional data systems across the United States, Europe and Asia, the paper concludes that institutional data systems display some remarkable similarities that make them an important resource for global comparisons; however, variation in the context of data production and usage implies differences in the higher education perimeter and on institutional delimitation; sensible comparisons, therefore, require explicit knowledge of the institutional context in which data have been borne.

Over the last 40 years, and particularly in the most recent decade, both the research papers and expert community surrounding Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) have made formative contributions to understanding and improving how higher education students engage and succeed. This paper takes stock of these contributions. After introducing the focus and approach, a review of contexts and bibliometrics is presented in a three-part historic structure. First, it documents foundation research in the 1980s and 1990s. Next, it analyses contributions made through HERD and its community since the turn of the century. The penultimate section unpacks more recent developments and trends. The paper concludes by clarifying emerging scholarly trends, practical needs, and research frontiers.

The year 2020 began with grand ideas about building future higher education. Thereafter universities have been through a constant swirl of uncertainties and confusions as they respond to a novel suite of radically reconfigured fundamentals and prospects. This essay charts this journey in order to document 2020 experiences and to clarify evolving circumstances. We present our personal situations as the basis for articulating perspectives. We discuss shifts with higher education systems, education reconfigurations, research developments, the mobility of students, and faculty members. Finally, we explore the need and opportunity to design future higher education. Engaging with transformed fundamentals provides a means, we propose, to design a new, global hybrid higher education.

This study explores development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) as it aspires to become a leading international education hub, set against the backdrop of established hubs in Malaysia, Qatar and the San Francisco Bay Area. Through a comparative analysis grounded in an adapted George Keller framework, the research investigates the internal and external dynamics influencing the internationalization strategies of these regions. The findings highlight the critical role of leveraging unique regional identities, navigating global trends alongside local adaptations and prioritizing collaboration over competition. Interviews with experts within the GBA provide formative insights into the necessary steps for advancing its internationalization, including the need for a unified regional strategy, addressing systemic and policy barriers and fostering a unique cultural identity. The study contributes to both theoretical and policy discourses on higher education internationalization by offering a comprehensive framework for understanding and analysing strategic development in emerging education hubs. It underscores the importance of adaptive strategies that are responsive to global educational trends, rooted in local strengths and geared towards fostering collaborative, innovative ecosystems. The GBA's journey towards internationalization exemplifies the challenges and opportunities faced by new entrants in the global education arena, providing valuable lessons for other regions with similar aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring effective university governance and leadership is more important than ever before given contemporary transformations of higher education functions, institutions and social roles. This paper reports contributions which seek to stimulate research in this field. Drawing from the formative case study of Australian universities, it discusses prevailing insights and gaps in leadership research, and articulates theoretical dimensions of good governance, an analytical framework for studying the empirical nature and work of university senior leaders, and the characteristics of contemporary arrangements. The paper contributes methodological approaches, analytical frameworks and empirical insights which are designed to generalize and replicate in broader research.

Doctoral training continues to grow in scale and scope in Australia, but has been subjected to far less design and improvement compared with other facets of higher education. Governments and universities engage in ongoing change which helps respond to opportunities and challenges but also leads to a proliferation of options and approaches. The current research study was seeded and shaped by the ambitious view that despite such refinement the doctorate remains in need of much bolder and deeper design, and particularly design with an education focus. This paper reports outcomes from a four-year national project which sought to articulate a doctoral design architecture. The paper discusses framing contexts and concepts, design and characteristics of the doctoral architecture, then implications for sectoral, institutional and individual practice. It concludes that this kind of architecture can provide a useful guide for growth.

This exploratory paper articulates the development, characteristics and nature of global university presidents and their leadership. It draws insights from a growing project which so far has involved in-depth interviews with 18 presidents of major globally focused universities. Analysing and reporting these interview results reveals the enigmatic world of presidential leadership broadens this field of research beyond the Anglosphere, helps build interpretative frameworks and perspectives, and furnished insights for guiding leadership development. The exploratory findings reinforce the particular value of studying university presidents, as these people have enormous authority, expertise and prominence.

The growth of the doctorate in recent decades has spawned concerns about programme quality and external relevance. This article reports findings from research conducted in Australia that was shaped by the view that the doctorate remains in need of educational clarification and design. The research generated insights that can be used to modernise and realign the doctorate. First, this article discusses the development of a doctoral education framework. Next, it presents results from a questionnaire developed using the framework and administered in a national survey to both five-year-out doctoral graduates and to doctoral experts. This identifies the need to design programmes that better orient and align research training with students' professional aspirations, incorporate more real-world forms of learning, enhance traditional aspects of research training and provide structured reports of doctoral outcomes, experiences and preparations. The results underpin the need for more specific analyses of outcomes and assessment, the nature and distribution of doctoral experiences and the design and management of the resources that go into doctoral education.

Studying higher education in 2020 has confirmed the difficulty of foresight analysis and need for courageous redesign of education fundamentals. This paper discusses the shift made by Tsinghua University into full online provision and considers broader implications for higher education. It articulates the emergence of global online higher education, and the capabilities underpinning this transformation. Drawing from the study of contemporary developments in China and the world, the paper concludes that now is the time for bold education experiments, informed by major useful university design.