This webpage created by Stephen Allen contains a range of materials very kindly provided by the people named below in support of a hybrid workshop taking place at the International Critical Management Studies Conference 2025. These materials are provided for participants to view and read prior to the workshop in support of exploring the meanings and possibilities for the development of alternative universities. The two key questions to be explored in the workshop are: (a) What is an alternative university? And, (b) how do we create alternative universities?

The brief given to people who were approached to produce these resources was to contribute with a text (c. 2000 words - possibly more or less) or short video (c. 5 to 10 mins - possibly longer or shorter) responding to the questions: (a) What does 'alternative university' or 'alternative higher education' mean to you? (b) What has been your experience of developing or writing about alternative universities? (c) What do you think are some of the challenges and opportunities for creating alternative universities?.

Cilla Ross (Hon. Professor of Co-operative Education: University of Nottingham, UK; Honorary Fellow and Associate: Co-op College, Manchester, UK) ; Malcolm Noble (Leicester Vaughan College Limited):

Nivedita Kothiyal (Lecturer in Management, University of York, UK):

Fredrik Weibull (Hanken School of Economics, Finland); Martin Fougère (Hanken School of Economics, Finland); Nikodemus Solitander (Hanken School of Economics, Finland):

                                                     Video conversation

Monika Kostera (Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw, Poland; Guest Professor in Management, Södertörn University, Sweden; Professeure Invitée à L'université Rennes; Visiting Professor, L'Université Paris Nanterre; Co-Editor-in-Chief of Tamara Journal of Critical Organizational Inquiry):

Mariya Ivancheva, Senior Lecturer, Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK:

Manish Jain, Ecoversities network:

Ansgar Allen, School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK: 

Film - A reading from the unpublished novel Situations, a sequel, of sorts to The Sick List published by Boiler House Press in 2021. Each novel represents an attempt to conceptualise the limits of university thinking, and is an experiment in what I call experimental education criticism, in the manner discussed in: Allen, A. (2025) Towards an Experimental Education Criticism: eleven notes in place of a manifesto, CounterText 10(3).