Today, universities and other higher education providers are key to the development of the knowledge-based society in Europe. They produce, teach and transfer knowledge; they perform most of Europe’s fundamental research and employ one-third of European researchers. They have an increasing role to play in innovation, thus becoming crucial to regional development. The strategic question facing higher education systems is not if but how to pursue major changes entailed by the ongoing transitions of our modern societies. Certainly, this is an issue for the European university – a term that served until recently as a rather historical reminiscence. Nowadays it is gaining again in prominence in the search for a successful and sustainable future for our European societies and beyond. With this book, we wish to broaden the debate on the future of the European university through a presentation and discussion of scenarios that provide possibility spaces for the European Higher Education and Research Landscape of 2020. The research for these scenarios was undertaken by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies.

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In preparing the scenarios, we made use of the views and perspectives of higher education experts (scholars, policy-makers, managers and practitioners) from across Europe in undertaking a Delphi-study on the future of European higher education.