Higher Education and Science Future(s): Rethinking Change, Governing Uncertainty, Imagining Alternatives

Crises and pervasive uncertainty increasingly oblige higher education and science (HE&S) to embrace an understanding of change that is not confined exclusively to past trajectories but incorporates contested conceptions of future(s). This introduction to the CHER 2024 special issue argues that future(s) in HE&S are actively made and governed. Drawing on seven contributions – on temporal strategies, policy shocks on mobility, the academic profession, third-party funding, hybrid learning, digital resistance, and knowledge transfer – the article identifies central pressures and emerging responses. Building on these studies, it highlights three directions for research and policy and organisational development: first, the importance of temporal dynamics in overcoming short-termism and cultivating tempo fit between policy and organizational cycles and rhythms, and the long horizons required for the sustainability of HE&S; second, the need to reimagine public sector and HE&S governance beyond narrow new public management logics, towards public-value and service-oriented models; and third, the design of resilient HE&S systems capable of withstanding geopolitical, financial, and policy shocks. The article concludes by outlining how institutional theory and futures studies can mutually enrich one another and invite the field to continue to trace and theorise how future(s) are legitimised, contested, and enacted in HE&S.