Challenges in european Higher Education

Abstract

Globalization, individualization, digitalization and information boom were fundamental world-wide changes that occurred during the 1990s, following the rise of international markets, communication and information technology in the 1980s. The economic and financial crisis of the 2010s has not only deepened and hastened these changes, but also set new challenges to the world in terms of restructuring the knowledge-based society through creativity and innovation, next to formulating new responses to the issues of climate and immigration, as well as to the widening gap between rich and poor. Higher education has to be deeply involved in this new phase, both through education and training (new competences for new jobs within the framework of lifelong learning), and through applied research (new knowledge to be implemented through innovation). Today, the world needs more and better educated graduates. Higher education institutions need to reformulate their missions and strategies.