How can universities meet the global challenges of the future?

He is also the current president of the International Association of University Principals (IAUP), a role he took on in 2021, and from which he is now preparing to step down at the end of his three-year term.

Coping with, and learning from, the pandemic

Our first topic of conversation is, sadly, the most obvious starting point: the impact of, and recovery from, the ravages of the Covid pandemic.

Dr León-García tells me that while very few institutions around the world were prepared for that sort of upheaval, the sector generally “shifted very quickly” and found “not the perfect solution – but a solution.”

“What we found out was that those that had already been experimenting or had positioned their universities to engage in technology-mediated or some form of distance learning - they didn't struggle because the eco-system, the environment, was there already.

Other universities faced greater challenges, principally because staff had to be trained and supported to “make sure that the type of learning that was going to occur was appropriate and that it was robust.”

And all of this was made even more difficult by not knowing how long the crisis would continue.

But there were benefits, especially the fact that “most institutions” started to consider how far their teaching approaches could accommodate all learners. The question that was posed, and which continues to challenge the sector, was whether the “predominant model of face-to-face for all” is “the best we can do”.

Supporting students to succeed

One consequence of that shift has, I’m told, been a far greater focus on supporting those studying at university. This has manifested as an “intensification of attention on student development and student support” in the form of mental health work, mentoring, and the development of personal skills alongside the continuing focus on academic progress.

Even leading universities, Dr León-García says, are increasingly talking about the “need to move from an outdated and outmoded understanding of what their role is.” Traditionally, university-level education has been viewed through the lens of “selectivity”, where the focus is on only admitting those who can easily progress through their chosen programmes, while rejecting large numbers of applicants. Indeed, much of the university model is based on this premise.

“But selectivity means exclusion and we're in an age where we're trying to promote the opposite - inclusion. So, how is it that you can offer high quality but yet be more inclusive?

“It requires a discussion, and a possible adjustment in terms of the mindset, of the most prestigious lead institutions as well as the core of Higher Education.

“It's less about who you reject and more who you accept and how you help them based on the point in their development where they came in.”

The impact of internationalisation

Another of the key questions about universities concerns the “internationalisation” of the higher education sector. In countries like Scotland, we often think of this exclusively in terms of attracting foreign – and, crucially, fee-paying – students, something that Dr León-García says “offsets the costs of domestic students in many cases.”

In Mexico, for example, where internationalisation has generally focused on student exchange programmes, policymakers are now asking whether the country’s “quality institutions” could capitalise on the “very desirable environment for tourists” and attract paying students into the country.

Dr León-García also highlights Japan and Korea, where bringing in foreign students is seen as a possible route to protecting institutions in the face of falling domestic populations, contrasting them with Australia and Canada, which have been hugely successful in attracting people from other countries but are now seeking to limit the numbers.

But he is also keen to stress that this internationalisation takes different forms. During the pandemic, the global south was “suffering” as a result of not being able to send students abroad, but this has opened up opportunities for connecting with others through technology in a way that wasn’t the priority beforehand.

“So you had internationalization without physical mobility during Covid,” he says.

“And one of the things that has happened is that after Covid, in the post-pandemic era, there is a greater acceptance to say: well we can't send the students, they can't have a direct experience, but at least we're interacting and socialising and we are getting some experiences that are developing a global and diverse perspective without having to go abroad.

“And at the same time you're having access, or increasing access, to faculty that weren't available before. And there's a greater acceptance of saying that while he or she, some great professor, can't come here, we can connect and we can have this interaction.”

University finances

In Scotland, the issue of internationalisation is closely tied to that of university funding - but we are far from unique in grappling with this particular problem.

Dr León-García explains that in countries where public funding has been the key income source for universities, “you are seeing a diminishing percent of the budget coming from government.” This shift raises questions not just about financing itself, but also the broader financial viability of institutions, and has pushed countries like Germany, which has “typically not charged anything”, to introduce some form of fees.

In other countries, however, a major part of the debate concerns the balance between public and private institutions. In Brazil, for example, more than two thirds of university enrolments are in private universities which receive “marginal funding and quality requirements from the government”, but the bulk of public financial support is centred on the development of “elite public higher education”.

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Across the continent in Chile a “high percent” of the population wishes to pursue university education, and the country regards this as “pivotal” for its development, which has resulted in a different approach where private universities receive greater public support but as also subject for more stringent requirements around the students they accept.

Ultimately, this is a matter of national priorities, and Dr León-García argues that in countries that regard higher education as “a major contributor to the development and well-being of the country” there will be a greater willingness to fund it generously.

What does the future hold?

There is, it seems, no shortage of challenges facing universities in the coming years: the emergence of AI; the balance between face-to-face and online learning; finances, including government funding and the role of recruiting fee-paying students.

Even the physical footprint of universities is up for debate, and Dr León-García believes that “undeniably the campus environment as we know it is going to change,” with a shift away from “fully residential” campuses.

But he argues that the biggest change has to be “a matter of mindset”, and that progress would mean “not going back entirely to what we were doing, but examining what worked in the past that does merit to be continued and what it is we were not doing in the past that we must now try to incorporate.”

What’s more, he says that we must “leave in the past” the things that we now find to be “irrelevant” in order to realise a brighter future.

All of this must be done, however, while being “mindful of the mission”, which means that institutions must ask who they were established to serve, and how they can best achieve that goal. The answers to these questions will be different from one university to the next, and that diversity should be embraced rather than dismissed.

“You have to look at the long-term financial and operational sustainability,” he says, “and you have to try to remain relevant to the society we serve.”

“And in the process, we have to look at some key aspects: cultural awareness and understanding, inclusion, digital transformation, social responsibilities, and the notion that you can't go it alone.”