HELM Virtual Summit 2022

Nowadays, uncertainty characterises our world globally. We continue to experience the effects on life, well-being, and socio-economic inequalities as well as the mutations of the Covid-19 virus and pandemics. We do so against the backdrop of already compounding global challenges of climate change, poverty and hunger, gender inequality, health and well-being, clean water, and sanitation.

The conflicts across the globe including in the Ukraine and Syria highlight our shared vulnerability, heightened uncertainties and how highly interconnected we are as societies economically, socially, and politically. The ways in which the global geo-political context is framed, shapes sustainability development and change. Higher Education is impacted by these changes, in terms of its core mission, financial sustainability and economic and social relevance.

This complex, changing context raise several leaders:

• How do we locate Higher Education and its leadership to advance sustainability and development?
• How can Higher Education Leadership enhance its collaborative efforts for national, global change and stability?
• What leadership framework/s can guide our thinking?
• How can we as Higher Education leaders monitor and evaluate our contributions?

The following constitute the sub-themes of the Summit:

1. What has changed in the Global and Regional Context that requires a rethinking of Leadership in Higher Education?
2. What is required in relation to Leadership Development that will allow for complexity thinking, agile and nimble capacity for change, innovation and fresh “out of the box” thinking?
3. What is the Organisational Setting/s in relation to collaboration, partnership and innovation required for universities to thrive towards Sustainable Change and Development?

Higher education leaders and experts from across the globe — including the American Council on Education and the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) — are invited to talk through these issues in search of economic development and sustainability and a socially just future for our universities. The Summit is being co-hosted by HELM and CCAS.