8th Galway Symposium on Higher Education: Creative Thinking - Re-imagining the University

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 8th Galway Symposium on Higher Education which will be held on the 10th and 11th June, 2010. This year’s theme is “Creativity in Higher Education” and our conception is broad, encompassing creative approaches to teaching, curricular design and the nurturing of students’ creativity. Our notion of creativity is not one which is just concerned with what are traditionally known as the ‘creative arts,’ but rather creativity in its many forms across the sciences, engineering, arts, humanities, medicine, social sciences and commerce.

We have an exciting line-up of keynote speakers and workshop facilitators from the US, UK and Ireland and will be in a position to confirm the final listing in the coming weeks. In the meantime we would like to invite submissions of papers, posters or other forms of presentation. In addition, suggestions of workshops or other facilitated sessions are also welcome. Given the theme of the event, we are also open to innovative approaches to presentations, provided of course, such address relevant topics and are appropriate to the participants (academic and support staff in higher education).

Topics for submissions may include:

• novel approaches to curricular design
• constraints and opportunities in developing new curricula and structures
• innovative approaches to teaching and the fostering of active learning
• the role of creativity in teaching, learning and research
• nurturing creativity in students
• imaginative approaches to the student learning experience
• creativity myths and reality