ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that biological concepts of ecology and ecosystem, can, with suitable adaptation, be used both metaphorically and practically to understand and represent the complexity of dynamic university ecosystems and the ecologies of learning and practice they encourage and support. Two descriptive frameworks (heuristics) are introduced. The first provides a simplified map of a university ecosystem that is open to the global ecosystem of infinite possibility. The second maps the key features of ecologies for learning and for practice, where learning is concomitant with trying to achieve something significant. The author argues for a more comprehensive concept of learning in higher education to enable learners and teachers to recognise and value the ecological nature of learning and practice and to expand opportunities for learners to create their own ecologies for learning while they are studying in higher education.
