Call for Papers
Telangana Journal of Higher Education (TJHE)
ISSN 3108-0693
Volume 2 Number 1 (January – June 2026)
Call for Papers
Submission Deadline: April 20, 2026
THEME
Universities in the 21st Century: Renewal, Reforms, and Roadmaps
Across the world, universities stand at a threshold. They carry memories of older ideals, yet they face pressures that would have startled earlier generations. Economic demands press in from every side. Political attention has grown sharper and less patient. Public expectations grow heavier each year, as citizens look to universities for courage, moral imagination, and practical insight.
The early years of this century broke many long-held certainties about higher education. The belief that autonomy, steady public funding, and gradual reform would always continue no longer feels secure. New technologies have changed the tempo of academic life. Markets judge universities in simplistic ways, through rankings and returns. The idea of the university still holds great promise—as a place for patient thought, disagreement, creativity, and the pursuit of truth. Yet this ideal must now contend with hurried timelines, algorithmic systems, and demands for constant visibility.
Questions about governance and purpose have become more urgent. Debates about autonomy and state oversight grow sharper as new forms of regulation tighten around campuses. Conflicts arise between public funding and private capital, between public responsibility and commercial interest. Universities stand under moral scrutiny as well. Their role as conscience keeper of the public sphere needs renewed attention at a time when knowledge is often judged only by measurable output and short-term impact.
Teaching and learning have entered a restless phase. Artificial intelligence has altered reading, writing, and study. It shapes the classroom and the examination hall. Online and hybrid teaching methods open doors for many who were once excluded. At the same time, they reveal deep inequalities in access, equipment, and support. Pedagogy now faces a double task. It must speak to the human student in all complexity and to the digital systems that filter, score, and record student work. It must hold together rigour, compassion, and a sense of shared responsibility.
Research remains central to the university. Yet the conditions that guide research agendas have changed. Ranking tables, citation counts, journal metrics, and funding priorities shape what scholars can attempt. Curiosity-driven inquiry—slow, uncertain, and open-ended—often struggles to breathe under these pressures. Universities must also confront questions beyond campus walls. The climate crisis, public health emergencies, persistent inequality, and disputes about truth and misinformation call upon universities to act with new kinds of courage and humility.
The public university, once treated as a natural part of democratic aspiration, now faces searching questions. Its purpose, its governance, and its patterns of inclusion all lie under inspection. Policies on admissions, student support, language, and curriculum intertwine with questions of equality, representation, and dignity. Access through the lines of language, gender, caste, class, disability, and geography has become a measure of the moral strength of higher education. Policy reform must work with a delicate balance between regulation and freedom, between accountability and trust.
This issue of the Telangana Journal of Higher Education invites contributions that attend to these concerns in depth. The focus is on universities in the twenty-first century as sites of renewal, reforms, and practical roadmaps for the years ahead. Scholars, teachers, researchers, administrators, and policymakers are invited to engage critically with the intellectual, ethical, institutional, and public dimensions of higher education today. Historical, theoretical, empirical, and practice-based studies are all welcome, as are interdisciplinary approaches that cross established academic boundaries.
Important Submission Details
Theme: Universities in the 21st Century: Renewal, Reforms, and Roadmaps
Sub-Themes (suggested, not exhaustive)
1. Academic integrity in an age of automated writing tools and detection systems
2. Autonomy, state control, and trust in university governance in the twenty-first century
3. Case studies of universities that changed course in the past two decades and the paths they mapped for reform
4. Case studies of Indian universities that attempted major academic or governance reform and the lessons for future renewal
5. Central, state, and deemed universities in India and their contrasting routes through the twenty-first century
6. Decolonising curricula and canonical texts as a route to renewing the university in the twenty-first century
7. Digital campuses, virtual communities, and new forms of belonging in contemporary higher education
8. Funding models for higher education and their consequences for the future of the public university
9. Green campus initiatives in Indian universities and their place in long-term institutional planning
10. Historical legacies of universities and their influence on present efforts at reform and renewal
11. Hybrid classrooms, student presence, and new designs for teaching spaces in contemporary universities
12. Innovation hubs, incubators, and regional economic change in university planning for the twenty-first century
13. Interdisciplinary doctoral programmes, supervision challenges, and new paths for research training
14. Knowledge as a public good under market-driven policy agendas and competing models of the university
15. Centralised entrance exams such as CUET and their long-term influence on the character of Indian universities
16. Long-term institutional planning under political uncertainty and economic strain in contemporary higher education
17. Massive open online courses and their relationship to formal degrees and university reform
18. Media coverage, public debate, and the reputation of universities in periods of change and contestation
19. New modes of participation in large online and hybrid classes and their implications for teaching reform
20. Governance models for Indian universities that seek a new balance between autonomy and accountability
21. Semester and credit designs in India that promote student mobility across institutions and regions
22. Open and distance learning institutions such as IGNOU and state open universities in twenty first century reform agendas
23. Digital infrastructure for Indian campuses with uneven connectivity and device access and its place in future planning
24. Public funding, privatisation, and competing futures for the public university
25. Online material quality, open educational resources, and reuse in university teaching reform
26. The changing idea of the public university in the twenty-first century and emerging models of renewal
27. Redesign of undergraduate education for an age of automation and uncertainty
28. Reform of affiliating university systems in India and alternative models for the next generation of institutions
29. Funding reform for steady support of teaching and research and its role in shaping university roadmaps
30. Outreach and extension work as long-term community partnerships and as part of the public mission of universities
31. University governance reforms that seek transparent and participatory decision-making in the twenty-first century
32. Research funding priorities and the uncertain future of curiosity-driven inquiry
33. Research agendas in Indian universities that connect local issues and global debates in planning for the future
34. Responses to casualisation and precarity among academic staff in contemporary university reforms
35. Institutional renewal based on detailed case studies of reforms and missteps
36. Institutional self-study, periodic review, and continuous reform in the twenty-first century university
37. Integrating artificial intelligence responsibly into teaching and learning as part of curricular reform
38. Responsible data governance for research that uses large digital datasets in contemporary universities
39. Tensions between branding, marketing, and the academic ethos of the university in an age of competition
40. Growth of private universities in India and questions of equity, regulation, and academic quality
41. National Education Policy 2020 and its influence on the future directions of the Indian university
42. The teaching-research-service triad in contemporary academia and attempts to rebalance academic work
43. Universities and constitutional values in contemporary democracies and the pressures of the present century
44. Universities and the creative economy in arts and cultural sectors as sites of new institutional roles
45. Universities as sites of ethical leadership, civic imagination, and public debate in the twenty-first century
46. University industry partnerships, academic independence, and conflicts of interest in planning future relations
47. University libraries in the digital century, changing reading practices, and the future of scholarly work
48. University responses to commercial edtech and platform-based learning in their plans for teaching and autonomy
49. University statutes and ordinances and their capacity for reform in fast-changing contexts
50. Vocational and liberal education and their changing relationship in debates about the future university
These sub-themes serve mainly as prompts for thought. They are not intended as article titles. Authors may take up one of these threads directly, combine two or more concerns, or propose interventions that chart new paths within the broader theme of renewal, reforms, and roadmaps for universities in the twenty-first century.
This issue of TJHE seeks to open a sustained inquiry into the present and future of the university. Each accepted contribution will form part of a wider effort to understand what higher education needs to mean now—for scholarship, for public life, and for the conscience of our times.
Contributors may please note
- Multiple submissions will not be considered. Each contributor, together with any co-authors, should submit only one article.
- The number of authors, including the corresponding author, must not exceed three (3).
- The ideal manuscript length lies between 3,000 and 8,000 words.
- All submissions will undergo screening for similarity and AI-generated content. If either measure exceeds 15 per cent, the submission will be rejected.
- Authors who have published in the previous two issues of TJHE are requested to wait until the next issue before sending new work.
- TJHE prefers British English and APA Style, 7th edition.
- For other relevant details, visit the Submission Guidelines section: https://tgche.ac.in/telangana-journal-of-higher-education-tjhe/
The Editor
Telangana Journal of Higher Education (TJHE)
Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE)
JNAFAU Building, Mahaveer Marg, Masab Tank Hyderabad 500028 Telangana, India
TGCHE Website: https://tgche.ac.in/
Journal Link : https://tgche.ac.in/telangana-journal-of-higher-education-tjhe/
Email: editor.tjhe@tgche.ac.in
