FHERC offered a playful program at the Researchers’ Night

News and events

On the 29th of September 2023, as part of the event series called Researchers’ Night, the Future of Higher Education Research Centre (FHERC) held a fun and inspiring workshop with the title: The Future’s Business Higher Education- the Futures of Higher Education.  The aim was not only to promote science and research careers but also to help recognise the importance of future orientation and system thinking.

The game invited the participants to an imaginary expert center of an expedition tasked with preparing a new planet for human habitation. Each group had 20 minutes to choose among different parameters to determine what higher education should look like in this future society.

The game designers used scenarios from the Scenarios for the Future of Higher Education 2022 report, developed as part of the four-year-long research project, The Future of Business Education.  After choosing the parameters, the final discussion revealed which scenario(s) were the closest to the way of thinking of the given group.

The groups of 8-8 participants of various ages came up with very similar results: Most of the selected elements fit into the flexible micro-education scenario. According to this scenario, “Alongside the universities, alternative training providers will be also important players in the higher education sector of the future, and they will all strive to provide their students with up-to-date skills that are the most in-demand in the labor market. Courses will be predominantly one year in length and will be tailored to the needs of the students, for example, they will combine flexible timetables, electronic knowledge transfer, and intensive face-to-face sessions. The micro-diplomas awarded on completion of these programs allow each individual to build up his or her professional portfolio.” (Géring, Zsuzsanna & Király, Gábor & Miskolczi, Péter & Tamássy, Réka & Szendrei-Pál, Eszter & Fűzi, Beatrix. (2022). SCENARIOS FOR THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 2022. 10.13140/RG.2.2.23774.92480, p4-5.)

The program design and the implementation were carried out by Zsuzsanna Géring, Head of FHERC, Eszter Szendrei-Pál, PhD candidate and junior research fellow, and Ildikó Dén-Nagy, research fellow at the Department of Leadership and Human Resource Development. Viktória Vadász supported the creative process and Hajnalka Izsák was responsible for the graphic design.