Coherence in Higher Education Models: Mediating between Imaginaries, Pedagogies, Administration, and External Challenges

Higher education models institutionalise assumptions about valuable individuality and collective life, and the pedagogical and organisational mediation among them. We argue that the robustness of higher education models hinges on their internal and external coherence and propose a four-dimensional coherence framework. Internally, a model requires: (1) Axiological Coherence, where its imaginaries of individuality and social order align in their premises; (2) Epistemic–Pedagogical Coherence, where a shared conceptualisation of knowledge underlies the practices of knowledge production, dissemination and transmission; and (3) Institutional Coherence, where its governance, incentives, and accountability follow a collective organisational rationale. Among the three internal dimensions, epistemic-pedagogical forms and institutional structures should facilitate the realisation of axiological ends. Externally, a model requires (4) Socio-Historical Coherence, where its axiological ends bear intelligibly on the salient social, economic, and geopolitical challenges of its time. We apply this four-dimensional framework to rethink Humboldt’s plan for the University of Berlin, reading Bildung, Wissenschaft, and academic freedom (Lehrfreiheit and Lernfreiheit) as a practical attempt to secure internal and external coherence. Finally, we diagnose some incoherences in contemporary higher education reform characterised by fragmented patchwork and contradictory claims often undermined by market-oriented logics.