International Higher Education, Fall 1998

The Society for Research into Higher Education: Advising UNESCO

The work of the Society for Research into Higher Education is fast coming into prominence as the international nongovernmental organization that UNESCO now consults on matters relating to research into higher education. However, it has been making information about higher education issues available to universities and to government alike for well over 30 years.

Its aims are twofold: it exists to stimulate and coordinate research into all aspects of higher education, and aims to improve the quality of higher education through the encouragement of debate and publication on issues of policy, on the organization and management of higher education institutions, on the curriculum, and on teaching and learning methods.

The international nature of the Society is important, and, indeed, distinctive. There are a number of national societies worldwide that address some if not all of the range of issues pursued by the Society--the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), for instance--but there is no other organization specifically founded for an international membership. SRHE's vice-presidents and fellows are drawn from the international community: Martin Trow is a fellow and Elaine El-Khawas a vice-president.

The Society has always had some U.S. corporate members, such as Johns Hopkins University, but the benefits offered in terms of free journals that come as part of the membership and huge discounts off the Society's books (some 35 percent) are not widely known by university libraries and educational research schools in the United States. The Society has a well-established joint imprint--SRHE/Open University Press--with some 90 titles in print and publishes three quality journals--Studies in Higher Education, Higher Education Quarterly, and Higher Education Abstracts.

The Society, an independent charity, derives its income from subscriptions, sales of books and journals, conferences, and grants. Its corporate members are institutions of higher education, research institutes, professional, industrial, and governmental bodies: its individual members include professors, researchers, managers, consultants, and students. A register of its members' research interests and publications is published on a two-yearly basis--the next copy is being compiled now and is a valuable research resource.

The Society's activities are wide-ranging, including networks on specific issues such as student development, funding, further education/higher education, vocational higher education, postgraduates, and managing innovation. Frequent seminars and conferences are also held on a variety of themes. The next annual conference, at Lancaster University, England, in December, will examine the issue "the globalization of higher education."

The most recent development has been the involvement of the Society in the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education. As an NGO of UNESCO, SRHE has been invited to send a full delegation to the conference, and the director, Heather Eggins, will be presenting at the conference.

The Society sees an important international role in encouraging research to be undertaken into higher education and disseminating the findings, and is currently working with UNESCO to ensure that the actions that arise out of the World Conference will enable a better flow of information to be established worldwide between researchers in higher education and policymakers whose decisions shape higher education.

For information about membership see the Society's website at <http://www.srhe.ac.uk/srhe/>.