Quality of Graduates in the Post-covid Era as a Field of Convergence Between Southern Theory and the Idea of Social Justice Higher Education

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social Justice Higher Education; Southern Theory; Quality of Graduates

Abstract

The idea of ‘quality of graduates’ as understood in the Higher Education (HE) sector is central to this conceptual piece. HE systems across the world have seen unprecedented levels of transformation as part of their effort to adapt to the conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that most institutions have gone back to contact format in instruction, questions are being posed as to how the vulnerabilities of HE systems that the pandemic helped expose will be addressed. Unfair practices, social injustices and perpetuation of inequalities have been pointed out within the sector. In this context, this article puts forward the idea of ‘social justice higher education’ that should foreground conceptualisations of social justice within the higher education sector. The authors rely on the notion of ‘quality of graduates’ as a measurable construct across institutions to elucidate ‘social justice higher education’. Southern Theory as a theoretical stand point is also used to consolidate this discussion. Southern Theory provides a convenient lens to view educational disparities that students experience across national boundaries in the context of the pandemic. ‘Quality of graduates’ and ‘social justice higher education’ thus form a solid conceptual alliance with which southern theory gets linked as a connecting thread. Conclusions of the piece point towards the need to reinvigorate the ideological affirmations in support of defining ‘quality of graduates’ along the lines of a socially just higher education system.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - A. Krishnannair
AU  - S. Krishnannair
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/02/07
TI  - Quality of Graduates in the Post-covid Era as a Field of Convergence Between Southern Theory and the Idea of Social Justice Higher Education
BT  - Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 4
EP  - 17
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_2
ID  - Krishnannair2023
ER  -