Perhaps the most fundamental questions posed by Reimagine Education are: (1) How are new technologies applicable to the pedagogical process? and (2) how can we ensure that new technologies improve the pedagogical process. From virtual reality to artificial intelligence to smartphones, educators and students alike are having to adjust to these new modes of learning. Here, we examine the most prominent new technologies, and highlight some instances of their productive use.

Employability concerns are at the heart of Reimagine, which endeavours to acknowledge that technology isn’t just going to change the way that we conduct education – it’s also going to change why we conduct education. This paper is designed to outline some of the concerns facing students, institutions, and employers as we approach – at uncertain pace – what Calum Chace terms ‘the economic singularity’.

Over the past half-century, the expansion of higher education has opened up the sector to increasing numbers of diverse non-traditional student groups. These groups come with their own specific preferences and requirements: reimagining conventional university models has been the consequence of institutional (and individual) desires to meet them. So, too, has explosive tertiary-age population growth in a number of nations forced prominent individuals in both the public and private sector alike to rethink how capacity concerns are to be resolved. This section outlines and examines some of the solutions offered to these problems.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds, co-organizers of the conference, have a proud history of supporting international mobility, recognizing the immense value that global study has in allowing motivated individuals to fulfil their potential. Demographic changes are constantly combining with political changes to alter where students want to study – with potentially profound consequences for institutions and economies.

The pioneering of, and scaling of, propitious new ed tech requires targeted investment both public and private. Competition for this investment continues to grow as the number of companies seeking to provide profitable ed tech solutions to educational institutions increases relentlessly. In this final introductory paper, we examine where investment is happening, who is investing, and what distinguishes an attractive ed tech venture from an unattractive one.

One of the areas most affected by the covid-19 pandemic is the Higher Education (HE) sectors. With the coronavirus sweeping across the nations globally, most universities and colleges had to be shut indefinitely to mitigate the spread of the contagious infection. Consequently, in order to continue running their courses and their other operations, most HE globally took to online operation such as eLearning, and through platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, Microsoft Teams, among others. Even though some HE institutions initially faced challenges, many were able to weave through the challenges and continue their operations online. But perhaps an important issue to ask is if the Higher Education landscape will remain the same after the covid-19 pandemic. The current paper is based on the authors lessons from the pre-covid Reimagine Education global competition and conferences, and their work during the current crisis on identifying opportunities in times of crisis. It is hoped that HE institutions, corporate training departments and faculty globally will benefit from the enriching discussion presented.