Reimagining Higher Education: Connecting Education to the Future Workforce

Dear Colleagues,

Higher education is experiencing significant transformation as technological innovation, artificial intelligence, demographic change, internationalisation and evolving economic priorities reshape the nature of work. Universities are increasingly expected to prepare graduates not only for existing professions, but also for emerging roles, changing career pathways and lifelong learning. At the same time, the expansion of transnational and international higher education is reshaping the higher education workforce itself, creating new forms of institutional partnership, professional practice and academic work across borders. These developments require renewed consideration of how curricula, pedagogies, assessment practices and institutional partnerships can better connect education with the future workforce.

This Special Issue seeks to advance international discussion on how higher education can respond critically, inclusively and sustainably to these transformations. It welcomes high-quality theoretical, empirical and practice-informed contributions examining how institutions can develop graduates’ disciplinary knowledge, digital capabilities, creativity, adaptability and professional judgement while maintaining the wider civic, ethical and social purposes of higher education. It also invites research examining how changing models of international and transnational provision are reshaping academic work, professional identities and the lived experiences of staff and students.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Artificial intelligence, automation and the future of graduate work;
• Curriculum innovation, graduate attributes and future-oriented education;
• Employability, career readiness and changing professional capabilities;
• Transnational and international higher education, partnerships and global campuses;
• Transnational education partnerships and the higher education workforce, including staff roles, professional identities, mobility and lived experience across partner institutions;
• Staff and student lived experiences in changing higher education contexts;
• Work-integrated, experiential and authentic learning;
• University–industry and community partnerships;
• Assessment and learning connected to professional practice;
• Digital, data and emerging workforce capabilities;
• Lifelong learning, reskilling and flexible educational provision;
• Equity, inclusion and access to future employment opportunities;
• Entrepreneurship, interdisciplinarity, sustainability and green skills;
• Critical perspectives on employability and market-driven higher education.

We particularly encourage contributions that move beyond narrow understandings of job readiness to consider how higher education can enable graduates to navigate uncertainty, exercise professional judgement, shape responsible innovation and contribute to more equitable, ethical and sustainable futures. We also welcome interdisciplinary and innovative perspectives on the changing shape, nature and practice of higher education, including transnational and international partnerships and the lived experiences of staff and students amid global transformation.

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit manuscripts offering new evidence, critical perspectives, innovative models or transferable practices that strengthen understanding of the relationship between higher education and the changing world of work.

Dr. Michael Day
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• higher education
• teaching and learning
• universities
• digital futures
• AI
• technology enhanced learning
• learning technology
• organisation
• management