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Beyond limits: new ways to reinvent higher education
Following the 30th anniversary celebration of the UNESCO Chairs Programme dedicated to the theme of transforming knowledge, the first UNESCO Chairs Seminar continued the momentum in the same vein through a discussion on the key challenges and potential approaches to pave the way for the future of higher education (HE). Such challenges include digital and ecological transitions, conflict, transformation of labour markets, as well as the expansion of enrolment in higher education.
These discussions were based on the roadmap entitled “Beyond Limits: New ways to reinvent higher education” that was presented in the 3rd World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) held in Barcelona last May 2022. The roadmap outlines a vision to rethink, reimagine, and reinvent Higher Education in light of the challenges and opportunities associated with global threats faced by humanity and the planet. It addresses the evolving landscape of higher education institutions, outlines six principles to shape the futures of higher education, identifies major challenges in reinventing higher education, and proposes practical approaches to translate dialogue into action and results.
Sobhi Tawil, Director, Future of Learning and Innovation at UNESCO, set the scene for the discussions, describing the roadmap as a “reaffirmation to renew knowledge commons to be protected and diversified”. This requires refreshing our approach through transdisciplinary research that breaks siloes, greater engagement with communities and the co-creation of knowledge through applied research. This is the spirit of the WHEC 2022 roadmap, as well as the 2021 report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education: “Reimagining our Futures Together: a new social contract for education.”
The moderator Andrea Detmer of UNESCO’s Section for Higher Education gave an overview of the report, developed by a group of 11 technical experts and which stimulated a global conversation involving some 10,000 participants. She explained that it is intended to be a living document to encourage further thinking to activate major transformations to reinventing higher education. Three of the experts involved in the development of the roadmap then further detailed aspects of the report.
Rethinking higher education models
Beyond the challenges, there were four positive developments pertaining to higher education, according to the first speaker, Jamil Salmi, Global Tertiary Education Expert & Emeritus Professor, Diego Portales University, Chile. These are related to the opportunities presented by: online learning; alternative forms of accreditation; open science and big data; and the rise of learning analytics. He also emphasized the ethical dimension of higher education, saying that “university education must place emphasis on ethical behaviour and values, to promote honesty, tolerance and solidarity… which should be an integral part of the institutional culture of universities so you can prepare graduates who are not only excellent graduates but agents of social responsibility, champions of sustainability and citizens longing for social justice.”
César Guadalupe, Doctor of Education, University of Sussex, United Kingdom & Professor, Universidad del Pacífico, Peru further elaborated on this point saying that education was not only a means for economic development and fostering democracy “but also an in itself for cultivating the flourishing of our humanity”. He warned against too much specialisation in education at an early age when we should be enabling students to work in complex scenarios on complex problems that usually require taking an interdisciplinary approach and cooperation.
New trends in higher education point to greater flexibility to respond to the interests of learners and society’s needs, pointed out José Luis Guzmán, from UNESCO’s Section for Higher Education. He said that previously, the needs of the faculty were often prioritsed but now was the time to put students at the centre. Blending research and learning to build active pedagogical methodologies, whilst also integrating non-formal knowledge, especially Indigenous knowledge, was vital in reconsidering the educational models. Furthermore, there was a need to strengthen international cooperation to maximise the benefits of combining knowledge, including through online platforms. UNESCO Chairs played a key role in doing so. Finally, he indicated that in moving forwards from the WHEC2022 roadmap, we need to build diverse roadmaps at regional, and even institutional level to ensure that higher education serves societies.
