Education experts from around the world meet in Madrid to examine new challenges in higher education

· On March 5 and 6 IE University will hold the ninth edition of the “Reinventing Higher Education” conference focused this year on “Higher education in times of anti-globalization”

· Over thirty experts from Europe, the U.S., Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia will meet in Madrid to examine current changes and trends in the university sector on a global level

· Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa and President of the University of South Africa (UNISA), and Santiago Íñiguez, President of IE University, will discuss Africa’s role in the future of higher education.

On March 5 and 6 IE University will bring together over thirty education experts, opinion leaders and representatives of universities in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia at its Madrid center to examine the current state of higher education worldwide.

Many of the experts who are set to meet in Madrid are leading the transformation of higher education in different continents. They will be centering discussion on issues that include the impact of globalization on the university sector, collaboration among education institutions on a global scale, the mobility phenomenon, increasing levels of diversity in classrooms, and the implementation of education policies, which in some cases may constitute a barrier to the free movement of talent.

The conference will open with a conversation between Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa and President of the University of South Africa (UNISA), and Santiago Íñiguez, President of IE University. Both will explore the role Africa is going to play, given the expected rate of development in the country and the fact it has the youngest population in the world, in the global future of higher education.

The international conference will feature a series of panels comprised of presidents and rectors of universities. Participants in these panels will include Rianne Letschert, Rector of Maastricht University (Netherlands), Fadlo R. Khuri, President of the American University in Beirut (Lebanon), David Van Zandt, President of the The New School in New York (US), David Garza, Rector of Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), Federico Valdés, Rector of Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), Ahmad Hasnah, President of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar), and Assylbek Kozhakhmetov, President of Almaty Management University (Kazakhstan).

The conference will also welcome representatives from the public administration sector, like Pilar Garcés, Director of Universities with the Castilla y Leon Education Council, who will give an address on the Spanish university system and the challenges it currently faces.

Speakers from the business sector include Nick Van Dam, chief global learning officer at McKinsey, and young US entrepreneur and Linkedin Top Voice Cornelius McGrath. Speakers from the media world include Anne McElvoy from The Economist and Phil Baty, rankings editor at the UK’s Times Higher Education.

Further participants in the conference include representatives from universities and institutions like Brown University (US), Sciences Po (France), International University of Rabat (Morocco), Bosch Schiftung and CHE Consult (Germany), the British Council (UK), AACSB (US), and the League of European Research University (LERU).

IE University

IE shapes leaders who drive innovation and change in organizations, providing a learning environment where technologies and diversity play a key role in fostering global vision, an entrepreneurial mindset and a humanistic approach.

Recognized as one of the world’s leading education institutions, IE runs undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive education programs in IE Business School, IE Law School, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE School of Human Sciences and Technology and IE School of International Relations. IE has a faculty with 500 professors who currently give classes to students from 131 countries, generate knowledge, and undertake research with social impact. IE has a network of over 50,000 alumni with a markedly international profile who hold management positions in 165 countries.