Follow the yellow brick road : the paradigm shift

Abstract

The changing dynamics of the globalised world forces Universities to adapt to a brand new environment. This is an entirely new path for Universities who have doubts regarding their role in the future. The rapid evolution of cross-border activities beyond the European space, the university rankings, the business-university, the market, the feeling that national borders are blurred and sometimes don’t exist at all - globalization is changing the face of the European university. The paradigm shift from cooperation to competition affects the university identity. Is the University an institution provider of knowledge and a “public good” or should we consider it as business company, profit oriented? In spite of the competition change, used in the open words of the 2020 European Strategy we have to preserve the thing that most define our European identity – the feeling of belonging to a Social Europe.