This presentation will provide an introduction to the concept of lifelong learning, exploring its relevance and potential for future human development. Lifelong learning – comprising learning in formal education, in non-formal contexts and informal ways – plays an increasingly important role within society and also within the higher education sector. Universities have a social responsibility towards society, conducting research that benefits society, making research results widely and openly available, communicating research to the wider community, and providing learning opportuntities for people of all ages and social backgrounds.

Increasingly, the global community acknowledges that lifelong learning – available to all, at every stage and in every sphere of people’s lives – is key to addressing the multiple challenges faced by humanity. Lifelong learning fosters people’s capacity to deal with change and to build the future they want. This is profoundly important given the disruption and uncertainly resulting from the familiar threats and opportunities of demographic change, the climate crisis, the rapid advance of technology and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. In such uncertain times, new ways of learning provision have to be found.

Learner autonomy is the foundation of this lifelong learning culture. Learning to learn has become a basic competence, as has managing one’s own learning journey and creating one’s own learning biography. Understanding all levels of learning as learner-centric presents a crucial shift to fundamentally thinking and planning education with demand in mind. This way, learners are active agents rather than passive recipients of prescribed knowledge. They co-design and use any learning process and its outcomes actively to realize their potential as fully as possible.

Learning is understood as a collective process, taking place among peer groups, within communities and across generations. Education emphasizes becoming global citizens who care about each other, other communities and the planet. Consequently, lifelong learning is for all, and learning opportunities can be created for and with the most excluded learners. There is a global learning ecosystem, built collectively to inspire and empower learners with a plethora of opportunities. The learning ecosystem integrates diverse learning modalities fluidly, including all digital-based and real-life experiential learning as well as blends of formal, non-formal and informal learning. The learning opportunities allow for planned or spontaneous, individual of collective learning. There is easy access to face-to-face and online learning opportunities as local infrastructure, global connectivity and sponsored devices are available for all. New pedagogical and andragogical principles have been developed, including innovative blended learning concepts that integrate digital and face-to-face elements while considering learners’ specific needs.

The presentation will link these future-oriented ideas of lifelong learning with the higher education context, the open science movement and explore ways in which research-based knowledge can be provided to learners in different contexts.