Open Access

Castulus Kolo, Ute Masur, Merle Emre, Klaus Kreulich

• On December 9, 2020, we continued the discussion on the future of higher education during the virtual open symposium “Higher Education 2030”. The focus was on drivers and effects of longer-term change with respect to (1) teaching and didactics, (2) institutions in the higher education value creation network as well as (3) national education systems and international schemes (including the interrelations of these three levels). In the resulting publication, we highlight the results of this discussion of distinguished guests from industry and academia from Europe and beyond. One of the key questions for incumbent as well as new institutions in higher education – whether private or public – is, how to prepare for the dynamically evolving times ahead. The symposium concluded that managing higher education cannot continue unchanged. Therefore, we embarked next on the topic of “From Future Skills in Higher Education to the Future Skills of Higher Education Managers.” For an initial workshop on May 14, 2021, we reached out to experts from different world regions as well as higher education providers. The aim was to outline the challenges and the necessary competencies as well as the knowledge and methodologies needed to succeed in the changing context of higher education. The results will address an urgent and important need of preparing for a future – even more uncertain in these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, that was also touched upon as a driver itself and an accelerator to other trends respectively. Based on the ideas collected in the workshop, the initiative “Higher Education 2030” shall continue working on further publications. In addition, it shall also inform the preparation of master level certificates that eventually lead to an International Higher Education MBA. “Higher education” will henceforth also be abbreviated as “HE”.