The public epistemic role of higher education for all

This chapter considers complex pressures on disciplinary `normal science, globalized higher education (HE) and its autonomous, public, and democratic dimensions. It argues for research and education to foster debate, resistance, and `habitation, not simply `producing knowledge, but cultivating ethical integrity and public good. Addressing key transdisciplinary themes of integration and emergence, the discussion centres critically insurgent, intersectional struggles that historically challenged established knowledge, leading to the emergence of interdisciplinary studies. Questions of academic freedom, integrity, and social sustainability are explored, alongside the principles of integration, variance and emergence. These are related `higher and `obstinately educational aspects of HE and possibilities to critique, delay or refuse neoliberalisms transformative project. Educative processes exceed instrumental purposes, resisting immediate societal demands to allow for learning. The discussion highlights the importance of open-ended learning, values and ethics. Epistemic responsibility countermands neoliberal imperatives, existential threats to democracy and epistemic cynicism with inclusive requirements to seek the common interest of human dignity in healthy environments for all.