Universities for Social Justice: Co-Creating a Vision for HE

Dear Colleagues,

Social justice is the ‘why’ of higher education (HE); it is often absent from discussions around HE but “it is the only part that makes any part of the field of education matter” (Tuck and Yang 2018: 7).  In this way, it is the basis for what and how we teach, research, and engage with society more widely. 

Higher education institutions should be in service to the public good, enabling inclusive societies through civic engagement and access to social mobility. Social justice is a core value of HE, achieved through a more inclusive, democratic, and compassionate academy that engages with broader society and local communities (Buitendijk, 2019). Yet, for some, such core values are perceived as being devalued in the context of a neoliberal consumer-led construction of higher education, ideological political vying, competition for funding and prestige, and a society with an “increasingly instrumental approach to assessing the value and contribution of higher education to the economy and society” (Watermeyer et al, 2022, p. 55).  This Special Issue seeks to explore how universities continue to support social justice, specifically through their engagement with relevant parties (e.g., students, staff, those who go on to employ our students, communities, etc.) through civic engagement, research and education. 

We recognise a broad definition of social justice including work on equality, solidarity, fairness, recognition, representation, and dignity for all, alongside approaches to address the needs of marginalised and equity-denied groups and anti-oppression (Healey, 2024). Building on Briffett Aktaş et al.’s (2023) definitions of social justice, we define social justice in education, research and engagement as follows:

• explicitly teaching about, researching, and sharing knowledge on social (in)justice topics.
• justice that occurs in the institution between educators, students, managers, and the course content and policies.
• justice that occurs between the researchers and the communities and participants worked with.
• justice within institutional engagement with relevant external parties.

In this way, we conceptualise social justice in higher education to encompass the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘who with’ of universities’ work. This ranges from, for example, activities in the classroom to create socially just learning environments, through institutional action to widen participation in higher education, to academic research with equity-denied groups and communities. 

Co-creation and partnership with relevant parties are often viewed as a socially just practice (Ameyaa et al., 2021; Marquis et al., 2022). This Special Issue of Societies invites researchers to submit their original research articles, reviews, and conceptual papers on partnering with, and/or co-creating practices with relevant parties related to a wide range of higher education activities, e.g., teaching, research, and/or knowledge engagement. We encourage you to reflect on where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going in relation to your specific contribution.

Contributions to this Special Issue must be in the form of an article, a conceptual paper, or a review and must address the topic of the Special Issue. All manuscripts must be submitted by 15^th January 2027. Guidelines for authors and manuscript preparation are available at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/societies/instructions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

References

Ameyaa, R. A., Cook-Sather, A., Ramo, K., & Tohfa, H. (2021). Undergraduate students partnering with staff to develop trauma-informed, anti-racist pedagogical approaches: Intersecting experiences of three student partners. Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 7(1). https://journals.studentengagement.org.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/1020.

Briffett Aktaş, C., Wong, K. L., Kong, W. F. O., & Ho, C. P. (2025). The student voice for social justice pedagogical method. Teaching in Higher Education, 30(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2183770.

Buitendijk, S., Curry, S. and Maes. K. (2019). Equality, diversity and inclusion at universities: the power of a systemic approach. Leuven, Belgium: League of European Research Universities (LERU).

Marquis, E., Carrasco-Acosta, E., de Bie, A., Prasad, S. K., Wadhwani, S., & Woolmer, C. (2022). Toward redressing inequities through partnership: A critical assessment of an equity-focused partnership initiative. International Journal for Students as Partners, 6(1), 10–29. https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/article/view/4895/4211.

Tuck, E., Yang, K.W. (2018). Toward What Justice? Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education (Taylor & Francis)

Watermeyer, R.W., Bolden, R., Knight, C. & Holm, J. (2022). Leadership in global higher education: Findings from a scoping study (Advance HE). Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/leadership-global-higher-education-findings-scoping-study.

Prof. Dr. Ruth Healey
Dr. Kim Ross
Dr. Holly White
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.