2015 was an intense year for . What were some of the key issues that dominated the higher education agenda? How much are they related to other global developments? And will they continue to drive the agenda in 2016?
According to Hans de Wit, director of the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, US, the following developments have been rather dominant over the past twelve months:
• A broad call for lower tuition fees or for tuition-free higher education;
• The increasing number of all kinds of rankings;
• The role given to higher education in the new Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, or rather the lack of one;
• The increase of study abroad credits and degrees;
• And as a supplement to this, the call for other forms of internationalisation, in particular internationalisation of the curriculum, employability and global citizenship;
• And the impact of global instability, terrorism and the refugee crisis on higher education.