Dr Janja Komljenovic
Senior LecturerResearch Overview
My research focuses on the political economy of higher education. I am particularly interested in digital markets in higher education, new forms of value in EdTech, and how things are turned into assets. I lead an ESRC-funded research project, 'Universities and Unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry'. My approach sits at the intersection of economic sociology, science and technology studies, and higher education research. I have widely published on higher education policy and governance, and higher education markets.
Profile
I am a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University researching higher education markets, higher education governance and digital asset-making. I have also been working in higher education policy since 2003 at institutional, national, and European levels. I am still active in higher education quality assurance acting as an evaluator of national quality assurance agencies, and as a consultant on international policy projects.
My current research follows three main themes:
- Assetisation and new forms of economic value in digital higher education
- Platformisation and datafication of post-secondary knowledge production and dissemination
- Socio-technical imaginaries and their role in performing the future
I lead an ESRC-funded research project 'Universities and Unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry’. The project includes an international and interdisciplinary research team. We investigate new forms of value creation through the construction of digital assets. We follow three main groups of actors: universities, EdTech companies, and investors in EdTech. We aim to propose policy guidelines on governing digital assets in higher education.
I am the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation at Lancaster University. I am also a Research Management Committee member of the Centre for Global Higher Education – a research partnership of international universities and based at Oxford University and UCL. Besides my academic work, I am still involved in the higher education policy and practice at the European level. I am an evaluator of national quality assurance agencies for ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), and a member of the Appeals Committee for the EQAR (The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education). I act as a consultant on various international higher education policy projects.
Current Teaching
Module Convenor of Understanding policies and practices in higher education in the Doctoral Programme in Educational Research - Higher Education.
Career Details
I joined Lancaster University in 2016, having previously been a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bristol. I have also worked as an Advisor to the Slovenian Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, and as Head of Strategy and Quality at the University of Ljubljana. I have participated in European-level policy-making on higher education reforms and quality assurance via the E4 Group, Bologna Follow Up Group, and EQAR General Assembly.
PhD Supervision Interests
I am interested in research proposals that investigate the higher education sector in relation to: digitalisation, platformisation and datafication, assetisation, policy and governance, market-making and industry construction, privatisation, quality assurance and evaluation, digital economy, and knowledge economy.
Capacity building for a European graduate tracking initiative in higher education
01/07/2021 → 30/06/2022
Consultancy
UU - Universities and Unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry
01/01/2021 → 30/06/2023
Research
The Unbundled University: Researching emerging models in an unequal landscape
01/10/2016 → 30/11/2018
Consultancy
Understanding Knowledge, Curriculum and Student Agency
01/10/2016 → 30/09/2020
Research
Malmo University, Sweden: Research symposium on assetization (invitation only)
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Workshop 5: Digital higher education: platformization, privatisation and a new governance model
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Constructing new digital assets in higher education: The (im)possibility of digital disruption
Invited talk
(Keynote talk) Higher education industry expansion: commodification versus assetisation
Invited talk
Assetization in higher education
Invited talk
Universities and unicorns: mapping financial investment flows in higher education technology.
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Digital technology in higher education: platformization, privatisation and new governance models
Invited talk
Digital higher education: platformization, privatization and new governance models
Invited talk
An introduction for the United Nations Expert Consultation ‘Privatisation and the digitalisation of education'
Invited talk
Digital rentiership in higher education: the future of personal data governance
Invited talk
The digital: new wave of privatisation of universities
Invited talk
Applying for external grants
Invited talk
Universities and unicorns: mappings and trends of investments in higher education technology
Invited talk
LIP Research Group
Oral presentation
Digital rentiership in education and what it means for higher education institutions, staff and students
Invited talk
University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research in Digital Education
Invited talk
Emerging digital rentiership in higher education: digital platforms, digital data and rents
Invited talk
Emerging education rentiership: digital platforms, digital data and rents
Invited talk
Digital rentiership and assetization in higher education
Invited talk
From a rebel to consumer and now a digital user: the changing role of students in British university governance
Invited talk
Universities and Unicorns: building digital assets in higher education
Invited talk
Universities and unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry
Invited talk
Data rent - value, ownership and management in the digital economy
Invited talk
Universities and unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry
Invited talk
Invited lecture at the University of Harvard
Invited talk
Invited lecture at the University of York, Canada
Invited talk
Digital platforms, digital labour, and the future of employability
Invited talk
Capacity building for a European graduate tracking initiative in higher education
Consultancy
Datafication and the platform university
Invited talk
On the steep paths of the academic profession: experiences of women in academia
Invited talk
Higher education and the hopes of the world: The next three years of CGHE research
Invited talk
Digital Higher Education Markets: From Commodities to Assets
Invited talk
Digital Higher Education Markets: From Commodities to Assets
Invited talk
Private companies’ strategies in terms of how they connect with universities and sell their services
Invited talk
Varieties of European universities' engagement with social media platforms
Invited talk
Does it matter what you study? Educational Reasearch seminar series
Invited talk
Making Higher Education Markets
Invited talk
The Magna Charta Observatory
Business Engagement
Making higher education markets (Educational Research Seminar Series)
Invited talk
European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education
Business Engagement
Higher education reforms in the Western Balkans: an international perspective
Invited talk
Experiences in external quality assurance exercises from various perspectives
Invited talk
Experiences in external quality assurance exercises from various perspectives
Invited talk
Evaluator of national quality assurance agencies for ENQA
Consultancy
Centre for Health Futures, Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in the UK , Supply Chain Management
- Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation
- Centre for Technological Futures
- DSI - Society