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Globalisation, together with readier access to capability-enhancing technologies and to technological insights once restricted to a few leading economies, are resulting in greater competition within Europe, and more widely within the developed world, for influence of all kinds (not just influence over the choices that foreign students make about the Higher Education courses on offer to them from Europe, but also influence of a more overtly imperialist kind, extending to the policies, incomes and futures of others). This article looks at trends in one important market for European Higher Education, the Middle East (particularly the GCC countries), which has many providers from North America and Australia. As observed by the late Edward Said, the USA is particularly forceful in the Middle East. Its technological superiority is accompanied by fervour to introduce American methods and curricula, and strong belief in their merit, reminiscent of the belief of the old French empire that ‘France had a “mission civilisatrice”, to civilize the natives”. The danger, highlighted in a recent UNESCO report ‘New Ignorances, New Literacies’, is that the natives will not be listened to. Is Europe listening more or less than the USA, and is it being listened to? Despite attention-gaining initiatives such as the proposed European Institute of Technology, EIT, and the commitment of EU governments to the Lisbon goals on competitiveness, there are indications of a drop in the influence of European Higher Education institutions in the Middle East. This paper explores the kinds of issues that may be at work, and the implications for European Higher Education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents elements of a future vision of learning in the knowledge-based society which is enabled by ICT. It is not only based on extrapolations from trends and drivers that are shaping learning in Europe but also consists of a holistic attempt to envisage and anticipate future learning needs and requirements in the KBS. The ‘learning spaces’ vision puts learners at the centre of learning, but, at the same time, conceives learning as a social process. The potential of ICT-enabled learning spaces can only be realised, however, if it is embedded in a social and institutional context that is open to innovation and supported by a favourable policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in powerful times and are experiencing a conceptual emergency. The imperative to learn is evident. Yet in spite of advances in knowledge about how we learn, our application of that knowledge in practice remains patchy at best. A key part of the challenge is to encourage government itself to participate in the learning process, and to overcome the psychological and structural constraints it faces that militate against learning. The article suggests a number of measures to facilitate learning within the policy process: including first tackling denial, making space for reflection, empowering the boundary spanners and — most important — practising innovation as learning. The Delors Commission for UNESCO on education for the 21st century called learning ‘the treasure within’. It is no longer possible for government to ignore the turbulence and complexity of its operating environment: it needs to find its own treasure within. This is the case for policy learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]