This document proposes a roadmap to reinvent higher education (HED) in the upcoming years. First, it identifies the evolving landscape of HED institutions and systems (section one), including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It recognizes the challenges and opportunities associated with global threats faced by humanity and the planet as well as major changes in HED in the last decade. UNESCO’s vision of HED is presented (section two) and six principles are identified to shape HED’s futures (section three). Based on UNESCO’s vision and these principles, six major challenges need to be overcome in reinventing HED (section four), which require significant transitions or transformation. Finally, this proposal identifies several practical approaches to make progress, turning dialogue into action and results (section five). The latter contains a timeline with several global initiatives to keep moving ahead in rethinking, reimagining, and reinventing HED. The roadmap is summarized in the first five pages of this document, and then presented with detail in sections one to five.
A roadmap for HED needs to consider two timeframes at country, regional and global levels in the upcoming years. The first one is given by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: the 17 SDGs and their targets. The Education 2030 Framework for Action was developed under this umbrella. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a threefold role: achieve their own targets regarding SDG 4, contribute to learning quality and inclusion for
the whole education system, and serve (through interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches in education and research programmes) to achieve all the SDGs.
The WHEC2022 takes place approximately at the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Education 2030 Framework for Action. While recognizing the numerous positive initiatives involving HED so far, much more remains to be done, as revealed by the EGU2030 Report, launched earlier this year. The second relevant timeframe is provided by the Futures of Education Report, launched in November 2021. This document emphasizes that education has an essential role in building shared, interdependent, collective futures. It calls upon building a new social contract for education towards year 2050 and highlights the key role of HEIs in every aspect of it.
This roadmap is presented during the 3rd World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) as a working version to encourage further thinking and debate among all stakeholders linked with HED in global, regional, and country scenarios. It is an input to deepen a global conversation about reinventing higher education, a technical proposal to be enriched by ideas and practices shared during the conference and beyond.
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