Challenges

In our rapidly changing world, higher education institutions have an essential role to play in preparing students for their future careers and in creating and transferring knowledge that is relevant to the social issues of today. This involves adapting institutions to enable them to address developments in the global higher education and research environment:

  • An increase in international competitiveness, which requires ever-increasing visibility and rigorous organisation on the part of institutions;
  • Society has new expectations of universities, and they are now expected to explicitly contribute to addressing societal challenges and to participate in the economic development of their country, while also advancing knowledge;
  • The organisation and content of programmes must adapt to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving world, in particular by offering students non-linear courses based on cutting-edge research results as soon as they begin their studies. Some of today’s jobs will not exist tomorrow; some of tomorrow’s jobs do not exist today. Individuals must now interact more frequently with lifelong learning over the course of their professional trajectories;
  • Training requirements have evolved considerably, notably in undergraduate courses. Educational models that take students’ individual needs into account should be proposed to prepare them, in all their diversity, for a society and world of work that are mobile and rapidly changing.
  • A renewed focus on the link between the universities and grandes écoles and their region, where they act as a source of inspiration for the socio-economic world and a major factor in attractiveness, population flows and economic, social and cultural development. Although some of these institutions’ undertakings are developed internationally, their regional footing remains essential.