Although it is a highly developed industrial country and generally known as technologically savvy, Germany lags internationally in digital transformation. Moreover, Germany’s progress in Higher Education (HE) is uneven since 16 federal states have responsibility for education, including Higher Education. The pandemic has reinforced the importance as much as accelerated the transition to digitalization in HE. Although HE leaders see digitalization as important for research, service, and management, they emphasize that digital transformation has meaning for teaching and learning. The new digitally-based formats of teaching and learning—for example “blended learning” and so-called “inverted classroom” formats—benefit students most as they motivate and engage them more than does traditional classroom-based education. As Germany is a member of the European Union (EU) and a signatory of the Bologna Process, European policies, programs, guidelines, and agreements also affect Germany’s digital transformation.

This article is an introduction to and overview of the main topics addressed by the authors of this Special Issue. Their emphasis is on the policy issues that are relevant to higher education, not the technical dimension of digitalization. The articles, covering 14 countries or regions from five continents, show the many communalities and challenges of the transformation to digital state and society, but also significant differences between them, especially between the countries of the ‘global North’ and the ‘global South’. These challenges and divides are clearly visible from the analysis of digitalization of Higher Education in the countries and regions covered in this issue.

This chapter provides the editorial introduction to the book, setting the scene for an investigation of the implications of two major socio-demographic trends for higher education systems and institutions. Unprecedented levels of migration, coupled with increasing longevity and ageing populations, pose significant challenges for societies of the global North and South. The focus of the book is on the role which socially engaged higher education might potentially play in responding to these challenges, facilitating more positive outcomes for both individuals and societies. Addressing issues of inclusion and equality for the social groups under consideration carries major implications for innovation and reform at a number of levels – institutional, national and international. Following an editorial overview setting the scene, this chapter outlines two sides of the ‘demographic coin’. On the one side, the global context of migration patterns is explored, and the reasons why this is of interest from our perspective of inclusion in higher education and lifelong learning. This is followed by an overview of the flip side of the coin, concerning ageing populations and potential implications for higher education policy and practice. We develop a conceptual framework which summarizes our intersectional approach to understanding the implications of these complex socio-demographic changes for higher education and lifelong learning. The final part of this chapter introduces the structure of the book, which is organized thematically with contributions investigating the dynamics of these issues in twelve countries, along with more generic analyses and reflections.

Dealing with a current topic of worldwide interest – after its first publication in 2015 – Higher Education Reform: Looking Back – Looking Forward has come in 2019 to a second revised edition by Peter Lang Publishing House. The four editors: P. Zgaga, professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Ljubljana, U. Teichler, professor at the International Centre for Higher Education Research at the University of Kassel, Germany, H. G. Schuetze, professor emeritus of Higher Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and Andrä Wolter, professor for Higher Education Research at Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, gathered beside their own views, experiences and conclusions, the research results and ideas of an international group of professionals participating in workshops upon higher education reform in the period 2003-2015, into the present collective volume offering both retrospection and a prospective view.

After a general overview of the main features of the Canadian system of higher education, the authors focus on access to and participation in this system. Although Canada has one of the highest participation rates among OECD countries, there are several groups who are under-represented. Among these are members of the Indigenous population, partly for historical and political reasons, and partly because many of them share features with two other underrepresented groups, i.e. would-be students from rural and sparsely populated areas, and potential students from families with a low socialeconomic background. Discussing barriers to participation such as cost, affordability, student aid and graduate employment, the authors conclude with a call for reforms that will abolish or at least lower present obstacles to successful participation by these groups.

Book review of "Vocational Education in Canada: The Past, Present and Future of Policy". An article from journal Canadian Journal of Higher Education / Revue canadienne d'enseignement supérieur (Volume 48, Number 2, 2018, pp. 1-196), on Érudit.

This book is a case study of higher education (HE) in the US, or rather two studies, as developments in the US are compared with developments in the HE sector in China.While the focus is mainly on the last 30 years the study goes back to the very beginnings of higher learning both in the West and in China, which helps one's understanding of the different roots and traditions of what much later became known as "higher education."Although he is no higher education researcher, the author is well qualified to undertake such a study as he is familiar with both countries, having taught and lived for several years in China (as well as South Korea), is familiar with the Chinese language, and has traveled widely in China as the director of the Chinese Exchange Program at Drake University.A professor of English, he currently holds a faculty position at the State University of New York.Ferrara's main argument is that, while China is massively investing in education and in universities in particular, universities in the US are losing their position as world-wide leaders in higher education due to major cuts of public budgets for higher education and, partly as a consequence, the adoption of a neoliberal agenda-i.e., of corporate values and organization.The list of Ferrara's complaints about the decline of US higher education is long and includes: the erosion of academic freedom through the loss of faculty governance; the disappearance of tenured professors and their replacement, on the one hand, by poorly paid and disposable lecturers, and, on the other, a growing class of overpaid administrators; and rising tuition, which makes higher education unaffordable for many students or puts them into debt for years after graduation.Similarly, the author bemoans the disappearance or significant reduction of the role of the liberal arts, and generally the "vocationalization" of higher education programs at the expense of the humanities and social studies.This list is neither new nor unfamiliar, since many books have been published over the last ten years or so in the US on the "crisis of the university," most of them written by faculty members like Ferrara or other university insiders (e.g.,