Facing enormous global challenges, there is an immediate need to better align universities with business innovation supply chains, talent needs of employers as well as regional needs more generally. Moreover, the development of knowledge-driven, ‘smart’ development of our societies needs informed leadership.

Despite this, we experienced a distinct lack of inspiration and innovation in the higher education sector. Most discussions and models of higher education involve incremental adaptations of the existing models, which are far from adventurous and often only involve adding technology.

We firmly believe that universities need to embrace change and seize the opportunity to define how they contribute to a prosperous society, or risk becoming irrelevant. But how? And for what future? The best way to avoid a new disruptor into your market is to disrupt your own market from within… Then the questions are, how will it all look in 2040 and will universities be willing to do it?