Lifelong learning challenges and opportunities for traditional universities

The development of the informational society and the widespread diffusion of information technology give rise to new opportunities for learning and they challenge established views and practices regarding how teaching and learning should be organized and carried out. At the same time, globalization and the emergence of new players in the world economy have intensified competition, many countries turning production towards high value-added and knowledge-intensive products and services which request high-level skills labor force. Lifelong learning concept offers the prospect of a radical new approach especially for the higher educational process focused on the opening up traditional universities for those who want to learn lifelong. In the same time, educational institutions, universities most of all, are facing a number of challenges: globalization, aging society; growing competition between higher educational institutions both national and international, and rapid technological development. To answer successfully to all these challenges, in the opinion of most of the specialists, traditional universities must transform themselves by adopting a lifelong learning system. This system will transform how universities currently teach. To achieve this transformation, universities will have to introduce strategies and policies which implement flexible academic frameworks, innovative pedagogical approaches, new forms of assessments and institutional collaboration. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu