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A free and hybrid symposium organised at Maastricht University on 1-2 July 2025 on Contested Language Policies in an Internationalizing European Higher Education Landscape Symposium.
The conference will also be streamed online and a link will be shared with the registered attendees. The symposium will bring together scholars and policymakers who will take turns in presenting. However, the questions facing the symposium are of interest not only to decision makers and scholars, but also to other stakeholders such as industry, government and civil society and we welcome everyone.
Key questions to address include:
What are the dilemmas and challenges of Englishization and how can these best be dealt with at the various levels of governance?
What can be learned from experiences in other countries?
To what extent can language policy be recognized within other broader policy issues?
To what extent does Englishization affect collective cultural identity and the relationship between higher education and the broader society?
To what extent does Englishization impact on equity and justice and what should be the role and purpose of higher education?
Programme
The symposium will be one-and-a-half days long, 1-2 July 2025 and take place at Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Day 1 will be a full day, featuring eight presentations by researchers and decision makers. There will be ample time for discussion.
Day 2 will be a half-day morning event dedicated to discussion on issues stemming from the symposium. Further details on the programme will be shared closer to the event date via the email you share in this form.
Speakers include:
Pamela Habibović: Rector Magnificus Maastricht University
Peter Wingrove: University Autonomy and English-Medium Instruction
Maria Kuteeva: Is EMI a form of elite multilingualism? Stakeholders’ perceptions and practices
Maria Sabaté-Dalmau: Questioned Internationalisation and English-language policies and challenging classroom realities: Insights from the Southern European margins
Snježana Prijić Samaržija: European University Initiatives and New Language Policies
Josep Soler: Linguistic justice and the Englishization of higher education: Can language fairness be attained?
Kristina Hultgren & Dogan Yuksel: Universities’ moral responsibilities: Summing up and ways forward
René Gabriëls & Robert Wilkinson: Contestations - language policy and inequality: issues for Day 2
Organizers
The symposium is organized by Dr. René Gabriëls and Robert Wilkinson of Maastricht University (NL) in collaboration with Prof. Anna Kristina Hultgren and Dr Dogan Yuksel of The Open University (UK).
