Higher Education Futures: On the Diversity of Scenarios

The article presents future studies as a multidisciplinary field of research with theoretical grounding in systems science and complexity theories, possessing high transformational potential and aiming to deal with the critical issues and challenges of humankind. The paper’s focus is on higher education futures which have gained much attention in the context of the ongoing digital transformation of educational systems. The author describes the diversity of educational future scenarios created by the most prominent international organizations and associations. The diversity of scenarios ranging from pessimistic to highly optimistic is considered an obvious necessity, intended to support strategic decision-making by governments, university management, and administrators, educators and other stakeholders in higher education.