CHERIF previously co-organised several Summer Schools on Higher Education Research.

The Summer School provides PhD students (and early-career researchers) an opportunity to present and receive feedback on their research, participate in a workshop related to higher education research, and meet senior researchers and other PhD students from the field of higher education research. The language of the summer school is English.

The students’ papers are commented on by senior researchers, as well as by student peers. Each student is obligated to give a detailed feedback on the paper of one other student participating in the summer school. The summer school offers a possibility to discuss one’s own research and ideas in a friendly, relaxed, and encouraging atmosphere.

Themes and keynote speakers of previous summer schools

The Summer School featured the following themes in the previous years:

• The 1st Summer School on Higher Education 2014: What is higher education research?
• The 2nd Summer School on Higher Education 2015: New direction in higher education research
• The 3rd Summer School on Higher Education 2016: Methods and methodologies in higher education research
• The 4th Summer School on Higher Education 2017: Making the big decisions in PhD – research ethics and social responsibility in higher education research
• The 5th Summer School on Higher Education 2018: Theories and theoretical concepts in the higher education research process
• The 6th Summer School on Higher Education 2019: Methods and approaches in higher education research

The Summer School keynote speakers represent national and international experts in the field of higher education. The keynote speakers of previous years comprise for example:

• Professor Roger Dale, University of Bristol, UK (2014)
• Panel discussion with Professor Jussi Välimaa, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Senior Researcher Terhi Nokkala, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Senior Researcher David Hoffman, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Lecturer Elias Pekkola, University of Tampere, Finland (2015)
• Professor Teresa Carvalho, University of Aveiro, Portugal; Senior Researcher Oili-Helena Ylijoki, University of Tampere; Senior Researcher Susanna Paloniemi, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2016)
• Professor Rosemary Deem, Royal Holloway, University of London (2017)
• Anna Kosmützky, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany (2018)
• Professor Jussi Välimaa, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2019)

The evening workshop and social event afterwards consists an integral part of the summer school. There were following themes of workshops in previous years:

• The future of Finnish Higher Education (2014)
• Academic writing (2015)
• Methods and methodologies in higher education research (2016)
• Research ethics and social responsibility (2017)
• Success and failure in academia, and how to embrace the latter (2019)