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Looking Back, Living Forwards: Academic Developers Responding Positively to Higher Education Changes

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Title: Looking Back, Living Forwards: Academic Developers Responding Positively to Higher Education Changes
Language: English
Authors: Veronica Bamber (ORCID 0000-0003-2416-7684)
Source: Active Learning in Higher Education. 2026 27(2):265-279.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 15
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Higher Education, Educational Change, Educational Development, College Faculty, Universities
DOI: 10.1177/14697874261427012
ISSN: 1469-7874
1741-2625
Abstract: Universities are experiencing serious challenges: constant funding problems, staff and student mental health and wellbeing issues, deep inequities, revolutions in technology, and serious questions about the whole meaning and purpose of higher education (HE), to name a few. Universities are not new to challenges, and HE staff have a long record of dealing with change. In reflecting on 40+ years of such changes, this paper builds on a keynote delivered at a SEDA conference, and on the contributions of academic developers who were invited to give their views on the issues raised. From their responses, it is clear that, notwithstanding the very grave problems afflicting the sector today, academic developers can have some hope for the future. Generations of academic development have evolved in parallel with sectoral changes over the decades, and developers have proved that they have the capacities to face with justified confidence the undoubted challenges which are approaching in the next stage of HE development. This paper looks back in order to support the process of living forwards, when academic developers will continue to use those capacities and play key roles in what is to come. This is important for active learning, in which academic developers have long played, and will continue to play, a key role.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1502934
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Universities are experiencing serious challenges: constant funding problems, staff and student mental health and wellbeing issues, deep inequities, revolutions in technology, and serious questions about the whole meaning and purpose of higher education (HE), to name a few. Universities are not new to challenges, and HE staff have a long record of dealing with change. In reflecting on 40+ years of such changes, this paper builds on a keynote delivered at a SEDA conference, and on the contributions of academic developers who were invited to give their views on the issues raised. From their responses, it is clear that, notwithstanding the very grave problems afflicting the sector today, academic developers can have some hope for the future. Generations of academic development have evolved in parallel with sectoral changes over the decades, and developers have proved that they have the capacities to face with justified confidence the undoubted challenges which are approaching in the next stage of HE development. This paper looks back in order to support the process of living forwards, when academic developers will continue to use those capacities and play key roles in what is to come. This is important for active learning, in which academic developers have long played, and will continue to play, a key role.
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