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Universities must build curricula that prepare students for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). However, given the pace of change, we cannot be certain of the attributes necessary to navigate the fourth industrial age (4IA). This chapter argues we can prepare graduates for this unknowable future through integrative, competence-based curricula, outlines how we conceptualize, design, teach and assess competence-based HE, and invest in those involved in teaching and learning at the University of Hull, UK.

To be competent is to have the necessary experience, knowledge and self-awareness to do something successfully. Competencies are “taught in practice and assessed in application” (Lawrence et al., 2020). Students learn by applying disciplinary knowledge to professional practice, where possible attending to live briefs or authentic teaching and assessment relevant to study, work and life. This has the potential to benefit the local region and students as they build educational, cultural and social capital.

To sustain the currency of competence-based HE, we work with the learning community (student sponsors, prospective, and current students, employers, and providers of voluntary and other services) in designing our programs of study. We facilitate mutual learning to design and deliver integrative curricula that are meaningful and relevant to all.

This chapter offers a survey of education transformations in the East Slavic countries, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, in the context of globalization and Europeanization. It gives first an overview of the common USSR background, followed by a description of education developments in these countries after gaining independence in 1991. It states that the present development of the national education systems is under the influence of powerful globalization and Europeanization trends. The national features of education systems in these countries are described. Global and European benchmarks for the development of education influencing educational reforms in these countries have also been identified. The author concludes that the development of education in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine combines national priorities and the countries’ need for integration into the European and global spaces. The research would be of interest worldwide in the aspect of the East Slavic region’s education transformations under common challenges.

‘Education for employability’ has been the mantra of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) since its inception. To attain that, the 28 participating countries agreed to implement reforms aimed at bridging higher education (HE) curricula and learning strategies and the labour market demands. Indeed, the global financial crisis and the euro area crisis and the surge in youth unemployment they led to have reconfirmed the validity of this policy imperative. Clearly, several challenges beset the transition from content- to competence-based HE. By elaborating on the case of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) this chapter, identifies and discusses them critically. Recommendations relevant for HE leadership conclude the discussion.

The present work aims to investigate social competences as part of the broad discourse on social and emotional skills, abilities and competences (SESACs). The objective is to nourish the body of literature on the different standardisation processes of educational practices with specific emphasis on the motives which govern standardisation of SESACs. With the intention to empirically explore these themes, data from a research on social competences as conceived by Italian middle school teachers are presented. In order to understand the practices of meaning negotiation in a scenario of normative indeterminacy, teachers' conceptions of social competences are presented and analysed. Results suggest a great conceptual variation about what social competences are. The work addresses a reflection on the role of SESAC in educational contexts in the attempt to give content and educational significance to this potentially fruitful educational tool.

This chapter adopts an international perspective and discusses the policies and activities that the universities both in Finland and in Australia have undertaken in order to strengthen and develop the prosperity for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. Social responsibility is approached from the broad-based perspectives – especially how research and development (R&D) activities of universities can be seen as platforms for university–community partnerships. This chapter first opens up the driving forces behind the universities’ social responsibility. The second section portrays how social responsibility is implemented in the Finnish and Australian universities. The following section addresses the significance of universities’ R&D activities in promoting social responsibility. Finally, the chapter ends with the discussion on the action models, which supports the social responsibility in university–community partnership.

Active and transformative learning (ATL) challenges the new era of teaching and learning in higher education. In this chapter a systematic approach to ATL theories and methodologies is provided. Authors provide a unique methodological framework for the integration of active learning practices in modern higher education curricula. This chapter also provides an integrated context for the overall discussion of the phenomenon in the volume. The recent arrivals of new disruptive artificial intelligence-enabled technologies such as OpenAI, ChatGPT, DeepAI and others are only few aspects of a new challenging era for the teaching, learning, innovation and sustainability in the higher education.