Today, higher education is under tremendous pressure to meet greater expectations, whether it be student numbers, educational quality, the needs of professionals, or economic development. Meanwhile, the resources available to higher education institutions are declining.

While the purpose of universities may have remained constant for centuries, the world around them is undergoing significant change. The main challenges and trends impacting higher education today are: massification, globalization and internationalization, distance education, digitalization, privatization, demand for better learning and student experience, the global flow of talent, ranking of research universities and the “world-class” phenomenon, quality assurance and university-industry collaboration.

Higher education management struggles with questions like: How to strengthen international cooperation by encouraging diversity and pursuing equity, relevance and quality? Some successful new models seem to emphasize the student experience, and a drive for innovation and entrepreneurship – one of the most recent examples being the Design Factory at Aalto University.