Visioning Higher Education For Contemporary Global Challenges

Visioning presents a roadmap for university leaders to vitalize higher education in response to global problems. It addresses structural, programmatic, and curricular gaps in ways designed to prepare current and future generations for unfolding socio-ecological challenges. The book introduces five urgent and interconnected global challenges (sustainable development, climate change, migration, global health, and social justice) demanding attention from higher-education institutions worldwide. Each of these five chapters explores the challenge and then shifts focus to the needed roles of forward-looking higher-education institutions. These roles include building critical consciousness, developing competencies, inspiring global actions, exercising leadership at all levels, conducting evaluations, and undertaking innovative initiatives. The book also proposes three specific initiatives: (1) creation of linked academic Centers for Contemporary Global Challenges, (2) establishment of...