This event is part of the School of Education's Bristol Conversations in Education research seminar series. These seminars are free and open to the public.

Hosted by: Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET)

Speaker: Professor Tatiana Fumasoli, UCL Institute of Education

Drawing on the existing literature on crisis management I will analyse how higher education institutions set up prompt and far-reaching responses to the sudden emergence of Covid 19 across the world to. Institutions had to articulate crisis governance structures and processes, manage both domestic and international students, support university staff and handle campus closures and openings following public health guidance. While the Covid 19 pandemic has posed similar challenges to universities globally, albeit at different times, variations in institutional responses can be found. In this presentation I argue that, first, such variations relate primarily to the distinctive organisational capabilities of higher education institutions, second, that the pandemic has accentuated the divide between elite universities and the rest of the sector with respect to academic and social impact.

Tatiana Fumasoli is Professor of Higher Education Studies at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, where she is the director of the UCL Centre for Higher Education Studies. Her research interests lie at the intersection of management studies, organisation theory and sociology of professions and expertise. She has led and coordinated several international projects focusing on global governance, external engagement and the academic profession. She is editor-in-chief of Higher Education Quarterly, an SRHE - Society for Research into Higher Education journal published by Wiley.

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