IE University and the University of Cape Town to co-host Reinventing Higher Education 2023 in South Africa
The 2023 event will be held at the recently inaugurate Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika on the University of Cape Town campus.
Co-hosted by IE University and the University of Cape Town (UCT), the 13th edition of the Reinventing Higher Education (RHE) conference will gather experts from around world to discuss the most pressing trends in higher education today, including diversity, inclusion, and accessibility as well as the need for responsible and cohesive leadership in the midst of geopolitical tension. The overarching theme of the event will be “New Humans, New Society, New Higher Education” and it will take place at UCT in Cape Town, South Africa, 5-7 March 2023.
Since its launch in 2010, the RHE conference has provided a platform for educational leaders, student representatives and corporate players to discuss the status of higher education and to collaboratively shape its future. Last year, more than 35 international experts, distinguished guests and student representatives from 25 countries attended the event, “Global Engagement: Towards Responsive and Innovative Universities,” which was co-hosted by IE University and Luiss University in Rome and focused on the challenges set to impact academia, government and the private sector.
“Since its inception, the RHE conference has served as a yearly point of reflection that allows the various stakeholders of the academic community to discuss the current status and future evolution of higher education and debate the direction research, learning, governance and management of universities should now take,” commented Geoffroy Gerard, Director of the Conference and General Director of the IE Foundation at IE University.
Vice-chancellors, university presidents, leaders in both higher education and the business world, journalists and students representatives from five continents will participate to this next edition that will be co-chaired by Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town, and Santiago Iñiguez, President at IE University. Among the first universities confirmed are: African Leadership University (Mauritius/Rwanda); American University of Beirut (Lebanon); Arizona State University (United States); Ashesi University (Ghana); Covenant University (Nigeria); Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar) ; IE University (Spain); Koç University (Turkey); Luiss University (Italy); Maastricht University (The Netherlands) Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany); The New School (United States); Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina); University of Bristol (United Kingdom); University of Cape Town (South Africa); University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania); University of Ghana (Ghana); University of Pretoria (South Africa); and University of Toronto (Canada).
Topics to be discussed during the upcoming conference include: the future-ready graduates and their vision for higher education, international mobility, south–north partnerships, decolonial methodologies and embracing an Ubuntu vision for global higher education.
Reinventing Higher Education this year will incorporate not only traditional panels but also design thinking workshops and an un-conference format intended to bring inclusivity and disruption to the thinking of the participants and focused on enabling all the attendees – regardless of their level of seniority – to have a voice and to feel that their voice matters.
