The University of Regina hosted a symposium on ”Public Engagement and Politics of Evidence in the Age of Neoliberalism and Audit Culture’, from 23rd -25th of July, 2015. This symposium examined accelerating trends in higher education, neoliveralism, politics of evidence, etc. It also provided opportunities for reconsidering and strategizing academic issues such as faculty criteria documents, measurement rankings, traditional impact factors, and other academic matters affected by the politics of austerity, neoliberalism, and new management technologies. The symposium explored several questions such as:
- What counts as scholarship and why?
- How do we achieve accountability in the age of accountacy?
- How do we measure research impact, (i.e. journal impact factor vs community and political impact)?
- Impact for whom?
- Who and how do we determine whose evidence and what research is legitimate?
- What can be done? How do we effect change to university practices?