ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the dynamics of higher education development in the current era and analyzes higher education policy landscapes while dealing with different burning challenges (e.g., digitalization, internationalization as well as political, economic, and learners’ changes and demands). In essence, higher education systems have been challenged by the sharp move to the knowledge society, the digitalization of space, place, and curriculum instruction, and more recently the disruption posed by COVID-19. Following this dynamic, the chapter poses the following main questions: (1) what are the critical insights that can be gained from current higher education trends in our era of globalization neoliberalism, marketization, competition, digitalization, and uncertainty while leading higher education institutions in time of emergency, turbulence, and so forth. Although a synthesis of emergent challenges and how they inform future policy and strategy will be discussed in detail, reference will also be made in this chapter to future developments associated with the study of higher education within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the larger Arab world during the present time of digitization.
