The “Roadmap to 2030”, which sets out key principles to reorient higher education for the upcoming decade, resonates with European education initiatives.
The 3rd World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022), initially planned to be held in 2021, took place from 18 to 20 May 2022 in Barcelona, gathering 2’000 participants from 139 countries. While reaffirming the crucial role of higher education in societies not only as a public good but mainly a human right, the conference highlighted the necessity of reinventing higher education to progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by activating a global conversation on 10 themes: i. impact of COVID-19 on higher education; ii. higher education and the sustainable development goals; iii. inclusion: iv. quality and relevance of programmes; v. academic mobility; vi. governance; vii. financing; viii. data and knowledge production; ix. international cooperation; x. the future of higher education.
During the two years prior to the conference, a large consultative process was undertaken including diverse stakeholders involved in higher education policy to set out the priorities to guide future development of higher education. The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) also contributed to this open dialogue by submitting a youth policy brief with concrete recommendations to boost participation in learning mobility opportunities across the world, such as expanding regional collaboration or involving students directly in the creation of internationalisation strategies at the institutions and national levels. The concrete outcome of the WHEC2022 was the creation of a roadmap to 2030 – “Beyond limits: New Ways to Reinvent Higher Education” – which encourages a shift in mindsets by privileging cooperation over competition, diversity over uniformity and flexible learning over traditionally well-structured models. It considers the missions of higher education in a new perspective in order to face the challenges ahead such as climate change, social inequalities and conflict. Overall, the focus of the conference was strongly put on creating more open, inclusive, equitable and collaborative higher education systems.
These priorities are also central to the different initiatives taken by the European Union in higher education. In fact, the European Commission (EC) held a round table on the European strategy for universities and its implementation through the Erasmus+ programme during the conference. This strategy echoes with the WHEC2022 in more than one aspect: access to higher education, sustainable development, digitalisation as well as inclusiveness and life-long learning opportunities. Among others, the European Universities Initiative supports transnational alliances of higher education institutions (HEIs) with the aim to create the universities of the future using a bottom-up approach and thus helping to overcome current and future challenges. Another relevant example is the European Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on learning for environmental sustainability, which recommends actions to integrate environmental approaches into education at all levels. Lastly, the proposal for a Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability and the proposal for a Council Recommendation on individual learning accounts demonstrate the focus of the EU on developing and fostering lifelong learning opportunities.
As a side event to the WHEC2022, Times Higher Education (THE) co-organised with Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) the Europe Universities Summit (16-17 May 2022) during which the contributions of European universities alliances in building a resilient, progressive higher education system was discussed as well as how collaboration and knowledge-sharing impacts European and global cooperation. The director of the Swiss National Agency for Exchange and Mobility (Movetia) participated in the panel discussion on ‘Collaboration vs Competition: What does it mean if you’re excluded’, where he brought in the Swiss perspective and the news that the first Swiss HEIs are becoming members of European university alliances this year.
Some important aspects of HEIs are nevertheless still missing from the roadmap such as the research mission of the universities or internationalisation of the curriculum at home. The roadmap is, however, seen as the beginning of a process with a meetup planned in a Barcelona+5 session to reflect on the implementation of the roadmap in 2027.