Completed project

Mass higher education in institutional settings: ethnography of academic departments in the Czech Republic

Project duration: 
2011 - 2013

Higher education is becoming increasingly important in knowledge societies and, simultaneously, undergoing a rapid and profound change. The present project explores contemporary transformations
of higher education from below through ethnographic studies of university departments. Conceptually, it is framed by theories of massification of higher education (Trow) and of academic capitalism (Slaughter et al.) which it strives to further develop and critically revise. Research team members conduct ethnographic  fieldwork at five departments selected to represent the diversity within Czech higher education, exploring how the contemporary transformations of higher education play out in the concrete practices of higher education: teaching, learning, research and knowledge transfer.

Principal investigator: 
Topics: 
public policy
education
Grant agency: 
Czech science foundation (GACR)
Department: 

Project publications (total 1, displaying 1 - 1)

Stöckelová, T., T. Virtová

This paper is a case study of the genesis, operation and, in particular, the educational
effects of a participatory website established and run by students of one of the largest
universities in the Czech Republic, the purpose of which is to enable students to share
study materials, essays and evaluations of staff and courses. We study the rise of the
website as a bottom-up reaction to deficiencies in the educational process perceived by

Topic:
sociology of science, education
Department:
Gender & Sociology
Type of publication:
Article with impact factor