Reinventing Higher Education The 2nd International Conference

The Role of the University in a Global Society, IE University, Madrid, October 18, 2011. Following the success of the first event held in Segovia on May 4, 2010, IE University, in collaboration with the Chronicle of Higher Education is organizing the second edition of the Conference on ‘Reinventing Higher Education: The role of the University in a Global Society’, which will take place in Madrid at IE campus, October 18th, 2011.
The aim of the conference is to gather university administrators, policy makers, business entrepreneurs, academics, student representatives and media experts to discuss the current status and future evolution of Higher Education (HE), and to debate the direction in which research, learning, governance and management of universities should now go.
The conference is organized in partnership with The Chronicle of Higher Education, N°1 source of news, information, and jobs for university faculty members and administrators.
The Role of the University in a Global Society, The Program
HE is undergoing a series of changes which pose unique challenges to the institutions and actors operating within the field. These changes concern (but are by no means limited to):
- The diminishing role of public and government funding and the need to supplement this with alternative sources, complete with the need for new systems of governance and public/private accountability;
- The entrance of new actors in defining the performance of universities (e.g. media, rankings, transnational accreditation agencies, etc.) which are supplementing the traditional role of the state in assessing the quality of universities teaching, research and administration;
- The increased mobility of students, faculty and institutions, with the definition of international partnerships and cooperation, branch campuses, etc.;
- The new student profiles, versed in new technologies, entering the field with new skills and attitudes towards learning;
- The way new technologies are reshaping the way knowledge is generated and distributed, including learning methodologies, forms of delivery, and even the role of professors.
In this new landscape, universities have to participate in society as global actors. Hence, the following questions need to be addressed:
- Ways in which universities can contribute to human and social development in the developing world;
- How to teach students to work in cross-cultural, international teams;
- How university research has to be reshaped to work on the world’s most difficult and important problems;
- The relevance of education for graduates’ careers - how to encourage interaction between global universities and global corporations.