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Universities and Global Problems.

Hans de Wit.
Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow Boston College
Center for International Higher Education.

Two major themes have defined the development of higher
education in the past fifty years: its massification and its cen-
tral role in the knowledge economy. A third driving phenome-
non has been its internationalization, which has taken different
forms in the context of massification and the knowledge eco-
nomy. In this contribution I will address these three issues and
how they have impacted higher education over the past deca-
des, what are key factors defining the current global context,
and what are the commitments of the higher education sector
for the rest of the 21st century, a century which manifests itself
by serious global problems, challenges but also opportunities:
the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, digitalization,
climate change and other SDGs.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher educa-
tion is a factor that has to be taken into account. It has been
both profound and broad, in particular on international mobi-
lity. At the same time, research collaborations across borders
and disciplines became essential for finding solutions to the
pandemic and its social and economic consequences. There
were hopes that higher education would learn from its neolibe-
ral mistakes over the previous decades, including increased
marketization and competition, and that it would shift towards
education and research in service of society through coopera-
tion. Philip Altbach and I were less optimistic and feared that
universities would try to return to their old habits as soon as
possible. but we also stated that major global crises change
our societies and, by that, also higher education: “Whether
desired or not, change is happening. Only the direction of the
change was, and still is, difficult to predict.” We remarked that
old times and old habits seem to have returned, but also ques-
tions if that really is the case, and is that really what we should
strive for in higher education? We stated: “These are impor-
tant questions, certainly in the face of other major crises—

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