essay about what school will be in the year 2030

• Vol. 6, No. 2

Our Schools in the Year 2030

Chris Whittle

Henry Levin

The past few years have seen a whirl wind of developments in school reform. Dramatic efforts to upend the 20th-century model of local schooling—among them,increased accountability and charter schooling—have made consider able advances. What if we look a little further out? To the near future, a place we can almost touch. What will it take to create schools that are efficient, effective, and equal to the challenges of the 21stcentury? In this forum, two veteran observers—one a savvy entrepreneur, the other a leading scholar—take a look at the world of schooling circa 2030, sharing two widely different perspectives on what education is likely to look like and what that means for school reform today.

Dramatic Growth Is Possible by Chris Whittle A Reply to Henry Levin by Chris Whittle Déjà Vu All Over Again by Henry Levin

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What Will Education Look Like in 20 Years?

There are many factors influencing what schools may look like in 20 years: unprecedented global forces and unforeseen technologies and paradigm shifts in the ways students want to learn and teachers want  to instruct . I predict that the future of education will require educators to be more entrepreneurial, collaborative, creative and  innovative . Additionally, learners will be even more tech savvy, demanding, confident and focused as consumers of education.

It’s important to think about what we can do to prepare for the future, so we can improve areas of need today. Here are a few areas schools should focus on evolving to create a bright future for education.

Personalization and Customization

Today’s learners are digital natives. They are accustomed to getting information and meeting their needs with a click of a button in a user-friendly, personal and customizable way. Future educators will have to face the fact that students will need (and want) to learn in a flexible, personalized format — for some, this may mean having a more technology-focused classroom. Students will want their learning experience to meet their interests, time constraints and academic needs. Check out Education Week’s recent article “ What Is ‘Personalized Learning’? Educators Seek Clarity .”

Student Ownership

In addition to personalization, students want to have a greater voice in their education instead of simply listening to a lecture. Since higher levels of thinking and learning require more student ownership, education will become more project based — a pivotal theme moving forward. Schools will need to allow students to choose what they learn, how they learn and what projects they participate in. For more information, go to the  Buck Institute for Education .

Improved Curricula

In addition to having more project-based instructional models, schools will need to examine their core curriculum. Contrary to the old-school traditions housed in English, math, social studies and science, we’ll need to redesign curricula and courses to reflect the skills mandated by emerging economies and technologies. Skills such as coding, design, sustainability and financial literacy — to name a few — will have to be integrated and taught in classroom curricula.

Innovative Learning Spaces and Environments

Schools will need to  rethink  the classroom learning environment to better suit students’ needs. The environment should be conducive to innovative and creative learning. An important question to ask is: Where do people go to get their creative juices flowing? For example, coffee shops are common spaces that groups go to meet up for creative projects or test prep.

I was fortunate to open a 21st century high school in 2008 called Minarets High School, where we created a Media Lounge rather than a library. There were still shelves filled with books, but the space also had wireless Internet, flat-screen TVs, coffee, food, community events, a sofa and soft chairs. Can classrooms be more flexible, social, comfortable and interactive in this way? For more ideas, check out David Thornburg’s book From the  Campfire to the Holodeck: Creating Engaging and Powerful 21st Century Learning Environments .

Interconnectivity

In 20 years, students will expect more of a mentoring relationship from their teachers, which is not the norm in schools today. Since more students will be learning and gathering information without attending school in person, future teachers will have to embrace various ways of staying connected and engaging with their students via social media, online communities, Google Hangouts,  Twitter chats  and more to stay connected with students.

Real-World Application Plus Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Schools will have to offer more ways for students to gain real-world experience that is applicable to their future careers. Schools should provide opportunities for students to intern at companies, mentor marginalized youth or collaborate in large groups, for example. Rather than limiting students inside a classroom, schools can create more opportunities for students to gain useful technical skills through real-world application.

Many schools now have one-to-one devices or are heading in that direction. Our future challenge relates to students using technology — if we look at technology as just a better tool to administer and grade tests, then we’ll have missed the boat. Presently, cell phones and social media are still frowned upon in the classroom in some areas of the country. In 20 years, schools will have advanced technology in the classroom to complement teachers’ lessons. For example, a science class may cover 3D printing and how it can be used to replicate prosthetic limbs to change someone’s life.

The technology is here now, but will we have the culture and pedagogy that optimizes the true impact of student technology use? In 20 years, I say yes. Hopefully, our pedagogy changes sooner.

Further Examination

Learn more about how schools may evolve in the future at  Edutopia .

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Schools of 2030

• Posted June 4, 2012
• By News editor

What will schools look like in the year 2030? Recently, Ed.L.D. students collaborated with students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design to come up with some possible answers. Here are some of the visions.

The latest research, perspectives, and highlights from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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What could the school of 2050 look like?

From learning in the metaverse to streamlining administrative tasks, here’s our vision of education in 2050.

Holly Spanner

First, we had blackboards and chalk. Then whiteboards and dry-wipe pens. Overhead projectors and acetate. Now we have interactive whiteboards. From hefty cathode-ray televisions that were wheeled between classrooms, to flatscreen do-it-all screens, the classroom environment has kept pace with new technologies. So too will the classroom of the future. We’ve come a long way since the 90s. And pretty soon, we’ll be in the 50s.

So, what could the school of the future look like?

Undoubtedly, the biggest development we’ve seen in recent years has been advances in technology, so we can be fairly certain that it will continue to play a significant role in the future. Whereas the traditional model of education has remained largely unchanged for the past 100 or so years – pupils are divided by age and the curriculum broken down into subjects – it has been adapted to incorporate new technologies, as well as responding to economic, social, and political changes. Not to mention pandemic-related upheaval.

It's unlikely this tried-and-tested model will change drastically over the next 25 or so years, but rather it will adapt to our evolving world.

In 2050, net-zero deadlines will be upon us, and green technology will be comfortably embedded into the classrooms. Recycling will be second nature and there will be no single-use plastics anywhere in schools or universities. Some schools may have gone one step further, with student-grown vertical farms as both a teaching aid and a sustainable resource for the local community.

Technology-driven leaps forward in education will have been gradual and practical. Rather than a complete technological takeover of the classroom rendering schools (almost) unrecognisable, improvement in current technologies and a sustained effort in emerging trends will be the order of the day, with more accessibility and more information available at our fingertips.

And the way we access this information will change. From online learning platforms to more personalised learning experiences alongside the incorporation of virtual and augmented reality, we may see a shift towards a more interactive method of learning. To better prepare students for the workplace, there may be greater emphasis on collaboration and problem-solving, rather than traditional lecture-based, note-taking teaching methods.

Here are a few ways that the school of 2050 may look different.

The classroom environment

On entering the classroom, biometric scanning will allow students to check in, streamlining the hustle-and-bustle of registration. Teachers will be able to collate attendance data automatically, populate perfect attendance records and more easily track patterns of tardiness.

“Sir! I can’t see, the Sun ’s blinding me, Sir!”

For the school of the future, there will be no need to wrestle with heavy curtains or dust-covered blinds; we’ll have smart glass. Windows that can automatically adjust their tint to compensate for external brightness, protecting both our eyes and screens.

As summer temperatures continue to rise – the general trend for 2050 being warmer, drier summers as well as warmer, wetter winters – air-conditioned classrooms will become the norm. But they will be cleaner, more efficient, and sustainable, with built-in air purifiers to remove toxins and dust from the air.

By 2050, 3D printers will have become a standard appliance, both in the home and at school. As a learning aid, they will have become essential, allowing teachers more flexibility to explain difficult concepts.

Students will be able to physically manipulate objects for better information processing, visual perception, and cognitive learning. The structure of an eye? Easy. Exploring archaeological artefacts without risk of damage? No problem. Understanding the now-antique internal combustion engine? That too.

Augmented reality and AI

Adaptive learning systems driven by artificial Intelligence (AI) will have become integrated into the school environment by 2050. Personalised learning experiences will take into account learning styles and create adaptive assessments that adjust in real-time based on performance.

AI may also be used to analyse pupils' work, even so far as predicting future performance, helping teachers understand which students need more guidance on a particular concept before they fall behind.

Students will be able to get immediate feedback, with suggested areas for improvement and more personalised tutoring, tailoring to a student’s strengths and weaknesses. This isn’t a new concept, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have been proposed for decades, but AI will make it considerably easier.

The move towards more immersive and interactive learning experiences will also be facilitated by the application of augmented reality and advances in AI. Interactive whiteboards will be kitted out with augmented reality – where virtual objects are superimposed onto the real world – which will be particularly useful for STEM subjects, allowing students to digitally dissect the human brain, analyse chemical compounds in the clouds of Jupiter, or make size comparisons of dinosaurs .

But with AI having become more widely accessible – like the recently launched ChatGPT which can generate sophisticated paragraphs of writing from prompts – so too will new plagiarism detection software. Sorry, students.

The internet, accessibility and remote learning

The pandemic has brought remote learning into the limelight. With a global population predicted to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 , and around 90 per cent expected to have internet by then, it’s possible that classrooms will be shared virtually with external pupils, providing learning to home students and allowing for larger class sizes.

And with more pupils, teachers will have come to rely on AI automation of certain aspects (administrative tasks like registrations and tracking grades), to ensure the best possible service, allowing them to focus on teaching.

So it’s very unlikely that the internet itself will disappear by 2050. But it will change. We’re already seeing hard drive storage replaced by virtual clouds; in-progress documents accessible from multiple devices and from any location, and it’s likely this trend towards greater connectivity will continue. 5G will be a thing of the past, but high-speed networks are here to stay, and we can expect to see more data-intensive applications and services as time goes on.

The use of Internet of Things technology will be widespread, with more devices and appliances connected to the internet, enabling greater automation and control over the school environment. Outside the classroom, for example, you might encounter robot cleaners tidying the halls while lessons are in session.

With a few exceptions, homework assignments will mostly be online. From downloading the assignment at the end of the lesson, to submitting it remotely (as many do now), students will be able to view their coursework, see the percentage completed, and track overall assessments.

Instant notifications will alert pupils to deadline extensions, feedback, and grades. Parents and teachers will be able to track progress, addressing issues as and when they arise.

Learning in the metaverse

And of course, with the internet comes social media. And by 2050, the Metaverse – a shared immersive virtual space, where we can be free of our bodies, inhabiting our own digital avatars ­– will be well established.

Wouldn’t it be great to try clothes in the metaverse and have the physical product shipped to us in the real world? If the Metaverse comes to fruition, it will undoubtedly be a game-changer for online shopping, but what about education?

Virtual and augmented reality technology will likely be advanced enough to create a sufficiently immersive and interactive learning environment, perhaps even linked in with the real world; a teacher’s physical words and movements translating seamlessly to their avatar.

But as more personal information is shared online, and we spend more time in the Metaverse, there will be a greater emphasis on protecting a user’s security and privacy. We may even see cyber security modules being incorporated into some subjects.

Of course, schools aren’t solely for educational development; they’re for social and emotional development, too. In that respect, it’s unlikely the metaverse will completely replace the real-world setting. Instead, it will supplement it to allow access to global educational resources and facilitate interactions with exchange students from other schools.

Just like Captain Jean Luc Picard likes to settle down with an old leather-bound copy of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in the 24th Century, physical libraries will still exist in the mid-21st Century.

AR books will be common, but just as Kindle and e-books have exploded in popularity over the last decade or so, access to reading material will become easier. Gone will be the days of lugging heavy textbooks around, hastily cramming them into lockers after lessons.

Students of the future can look forward to having recommended reading materials right at their fingertips, via e-readers and tablet devices which can be digitally annotated, or manipulated via VR.

We can already do this with today’s e-ink devices, and since tablets have been introduced as an integral learning device in the last decade, studies have shown that they can motivate both pupils and teachers , emphasising interactivity and keeping them engaged with the content for longer .

By extension, digital literacy will be improved, and kids of the future will be even more tech-savvy than your toddler who already knows how to buy Fortnite skins.

Subsequently, reliance on paper products will be reduced, although not eliminated completely. Artists have been using paper for thousands of years, so it’s unlikely we’ll ever see its complete disappearance, especially in art and design subjects. The paper we do use, however, will be eco-friendly; either recycled, or made from fast-growing plants like bamboo.

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Sir Michael Barber

BRIGHT Magazine

For example, my good friend Peter Hyman has set up a beautiful free school in the East End of London.

The simple, profound purpose of the school is to produce beautiful work — each piece of work the students produce, whatever the subject and whatever its nature, is important in and for itself. Peter does not advocate this because he doesn’t care how well the students do in traditional exams. It is true he would like to see an assessment revolution — which is indeed required — but in the meantime, he fully expects his students to succeed in traditional exams because of, not in spite of, the emphasis on beautiful work.

I want to draw out two implications of Peter’s philosophy. First, the thinking is based on that of a craftsperson — and craftspeople have always valued precision and data. Also, for a craftsperson, precision and measurement on the one hand and creativity and inspiration on the other go together. Why in education do we so often see them as in contradiction?

Second, the leadership for the kind of change Peter is bringing about can come only from among educators, not government. Government can create the circumstances in which this kind of leadership is more likely, but it cannot make it happen. Unless bold leaders from within education systems step forward, as Peter and many others around the world are doing, the necessary transformation will not occur.

In our predicted school of the future, data is ubiquitous. Progress is measured not just on academic performance but also on wider skills and attributes, such as leadership and teamwork, that we know are becoming vital to future success and fulfillment. The report might have also mentioned grit and resilience, the qualities required to persist when the going gets tough.

There would be totally transformed classrooms — or maybe we should say learning spaces — that are open and flexible and equipped with the latest technology. In spaces such as these, students are sometimes working alone (perhaps at sophisticated educational games or simulations), sometimes in small teams, and sometimes in a whole class or even bigger group.

The teacher is no longer just a transmitter of knowledge, but neither is she or he a mere facilitator. The role is that of an “activator,” using John Hattie ’s evocative term: someone who injects ambition, provokes thought, asks great questions, challenges mediocrity, and brings passion and insight to the task at hand.

At the same time, teachers would draw on excellent data to have a clear, personalized picture of every student in the class. As a result, the teacher is in a position to have an informed conversation with each student about where they are, where they want to go, and how they might get there. Many schools now keep excellent precise records on student progress, which they share and discuss with the student and their family. This has the power to unlock potential in ways that were never possible before.

Moreover, teachers will have access to data from far beyond the school that will enable them to answer questions such as, “Has anyone successfully taught this sequence of geometry to a group of Turkish boys who are in danger of falling behind, and, if so, how did they do that?”

The teachers who solve such problems won’t have to wait to be asked how they did it; they will be posting lesson plans and videos in easily usable formats for their fellow professionals to draw on. They will receive a royalty every time their solution is downloaded, just as an artist does on iTunes.

All this, of course, has implications for school leadership. That we will want instructional leaders goes without saying; our school leaders will need to be capable of recognizing and inspiring excellence while also challenging and questioning mediocrity. They will need to spark innovative thinking and decide when to unleash a radical experiment — or when to hold back!

But this will not be enough. They will also need to think strategically. As Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly argue in Alive in the Swamp , school leaders will need to understand that the digital revolution will bring a transformation in learning outcomes only when they simultaneously change pedagogy and school organization. Finally, school leaders will need to engage parents and communities in a dialogue about education and its implications for individual learners and society as a whole.

All this amounts to an exciting vision — but one that won’t happen by itself. We need more pioneers like Peter who create learning environments where beautiful and excellent work is embraced as an end in itself. We need school leaders to think strategically about the use of technology in learning and use wisely the opportunities that are available to rethink everything from pedagogy to how the classroom is organized.

Let’s make a start.

This article was taken from the Australian Learning Lecture , Joy and Data. The Australian Learning Lecture is an initiative of the Koshland Innovation Fund and State Library Victoria .

Written by Sir Michael Barber

Founder and Chairman at Delivery Associates and Chair of the Office for Students . Author, How to Run a Government, (published by Penguin 26 March 2015).

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Events, news & press, american education in 2030: what can happen in twenty years.

Despite its vast inertia, U.S. education can change dramatically in two decades.

Despite its vast inertia, U.S. education can change dramatically in two decades. Consider these seismic alterations between 1990 and 2010: (1) standards-based reform, (2) major alterations in the federal role, (3) the reinvention of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), (4) the advent and grown of charter schools, (5) enormous expansion of other choices, (6) alternative certification, (7) school governance innovation (e.g., mayors), (8) cyberlearning, (9) finance reforms, (10) greater integration of primary-secondary schooling preschool and higher education as well as data systems that enable individuals' progress to be tracked.

View the discussion thread.

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What Will the World Look Like in 2030?

September 8, 2020 • 8 min read.

Big economic, technological and demographic changes are coming, and the pandemic is accelerating many of them, Wharton’s Mauro Guillen says in his new book.

• Public Policy

Wharton’s Mauro Guillen talks with Wharton Business Daily on SiriusXM about his new book on the trends that are shaping our future.

Big demographic, economic and technological changes are coming — from an aging population in the U.S. and the rise of sub-Saharan Africa as a compelling middle-class market to automation causing “technological unemployment,” according to Wharton management professor Mauro Guillen.

In his new book, “ 2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, ” Guillen discusses how these changes will affect us in the years to come. During a recent interview on the Wharton Business Daily show on SiriusXM , Guillen noted that while these trends have been gathering pace for years, the pandemic is accelerating many of them. (Listen to the podcast above.) Rising inequality across income, race and gender will demand urgent attention, and government policy making will need to become more innovative to address such challenges. Individual responsibility will play a role, too, in areas such as climate change, he says.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Wharton Business Daily: Why did you write this book?

Mauro Guillen: Everyone sees change everywhere, and I think it’s important to figure out where are we going to be five to 10 years from now. How are consumer markets going to look? It’s extremely important for businesses and also for individuals – as investors, as savers and more generally as citizens – to figure out what the future’s going to look like.

Wharton Business Daily: What role has the pandemic played in that change?

Guillen: The pandemic essentially has two different effects, depending on the trend. One is to accelerate and to intensify some things. For example, consider population aging. Inevitably in a recession, we have fewer babies. The mere postponement of having babies accelerates population aging, so problems related to Social Security and pensions will arrive earlier. Other types of trends get delayed, or even reversed, by something like this. One of them will be the growth of cities, especially in Europe and in the U.S.

“We’re going to have to think very carefully in political terms and in social terms about the implications of further automation, especially in the service sector.”

Wharton Business Daily: North America, Europe and Asia have been vital in the last several decades, but you talk about other areas of the world picking up and having a larger impact in the years ahead.

Guillen: I am very bullish on sub-Saharan Africa because of their demographic dynamism, and because the biggest cities in Africa are growing and creating an expanding middle class. Now, only maybe 15% of the sub-Saharan African population is middle class. But that proportion is growing. That will change the world, because Africa will soon become the second most populous region in the world.

Coming Shifts in Technology

Wharton Business Daily: What significant changes do you see in terms of technology?

Guillen: As a result of the pandemic, technology adoption has been progressing much faster, out of necessity. We’ve been confined to the home, students cannot attend school and so on and so forth. But we also need to watch carefully the new incentives for automation, especially in the service sector, that this public health crisis creates.

We’re going to see more automation. We’re going to see, unfortunately, more technological unemployment. Many other jobs have been lost in the American economy. I don’t think they’re coming back. We’re going to have to think very carefully in political terms and in social terms about the implications of further automation, especially in the service sector.

Wharton Business Daily: Would the increased emphasis on automation also influence policymaking and education?

Guillen: Yes. In terms of policy making, we have to figure out how to retrain people and how to help those people find other jobs. We may have to consider very seriously ideas such as a universal basic income , which you have discussed on your show on several occasions. This used to be a fringe idea, but it’s quickly becoming more mainstream.

Wharton Business Daily: We’ve seen a little bit of that here in the U.S. with the $1,200 stimulus checks that were part of a $2.2 trillion package of coronavirus relief measures. But what you’re talking about concerns how governments look out for their citizenry, correct?

Guillen: Exactly. It’s not just about being nice to people, which I think we should be. But universal basic income also has a business case. Remember, two-thirds of the American economy is [made up of household] consumption . If people don’t have jobs or don’t have well-paying jobs, then we need to compensate for that.

Wharton Business Daily: You also focus on how currencies may change. To a degree, we’ve already seen that with bitcoin.

Guillen: Yes, we need to seriously consider how entrepreneurs can come up with new ideas as to what cryptocurrencies, or to be more precise, crypto tokens, will be used for.

“I hope that the two presidential candidates start debating exactly how they’re going to deal with increasing inequality.”

If cryptocurrencies are just a substitute for the money that governments issue, then I don’t think we’re going to get too far because our regulators are always against cryptocurrencies as a competitor for legal tender.

But if we add other functions or other uses to those digital tokens — like if they will help us vote, keep politicians in check or provide incentives for people to save the environment — then there is a bright future ahead for digital tokens. So instead of digital currency, I would say digital tokens, which would include a currency component to them.

Inequality: The Next Frontier

Wharton Business Daily: How do we address the wealth gap?

Guillen: That’s a huge development of the last 20 years, and the pandemic only exacerbates inequality. Not everyone can work from the home, and therefore they have to expose themselves to the virus while taking public transportation to go to work. Consider students. It is estimated that up to 20% of K-12 students in the U.S. don’t have the hardware or the connectivity that they need at home in order to continue school work. This is the most unfortunate part of this pandemic, and it exacerbates inequality based on income and race.

That is true even by gender. Unemployment is growing faster among women than men. So, this is something that we need to pay attention to. I hope that the two presidential candidates start debating exactly how they’re going to deal with this increasing inequality.

Wharton Business Daily: Are we ready to tackle these issues?

Guillen: There is increasing awareness, but I guess we will have to wait until after the presidential election. But whoever happens to be in the White House and whoever controls the Senate come January, I don’t think they will be able to ignore the issue of inequality. We’re seeing social tensions and all sorts of frictions proliferate. The sooner we start tackling it, the better.

Wharton Business Daily: People are worried about various individual issues. But should the emphasis be on changing the overall mindset about how we want our world to look in 2030?

“We’re seeing social tensions and all sorts of frictions proliferate. The sooner we start tackling it, the better.”

Guillen: I do believe so. For example, many parents are now concerned about whether their children will be able to have the kind of life that they have been able to have. The way things are going, maybe only a small fraction of them will do better than their parents.

Here in the U.S., one of the single most important values that we have is that we want every generation to do better than the previous one. And this is becoming increasingly difficult. Millennials right now are suffering from — for a second time during their adult lifetimes — a very difficult labor market.

There’s more consciousness and awareness of this, and the culture will need to adjust in terms of revisiting some of our values.

Wharton Business Daily: How will the mindset of governments and policymakers need to change?

Guillen: The time has come to be a little bit more innovative, to explore things in terms of government policy making that 10, 20 years ago we thought were completely out of bounds. The problems have become so large. By the way, we haven’t even talked about climate change. We really need to start thinking outside of the box.

Wharton Business Daily: What should we be doing?

Guillen: We need to focus on two things. One is international collaboration among governments when it comes to climate change, but also in other areas like trade, where it is completely absent right now. The second one, which is the one that I push in my book, is we as individuals need to take ownership of this. We need to be less wasteful. We need to economize our resources. We need to be more pro-environment in our own behavior as consumers.

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Vision 2030: The rulebook for a re-imagined education system

As the education system underwent a drastic change during the pandemic. here are some of the ways that will help change the future of the education system in india..

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Imagine schools the way we have witnessed them for centuries - a model with students divided by grades, learning a curriculum that is standardised to their age, broken down into four to five major subject areas, and being subject to evaluation via examinations.

Now, imagine a different approach along with the existing framework. A school as a learning hub for students, honing global citizens who are aware of their social responsibilities and thrive on innovation and creativity. A center that nudges students to learn in their own ways, at their own pace. An institution that challenges them to solve real-world problems. This, I believe, will be the cornerstone of the future-looking schools of tomorrow.

In fact, the tide has already turned and we have made major strides towards a reimagined education system. The pandemic did to the education system, what cell phones perhaps did to the way we communicate with each other - set it on a path of transformation.

We now realise education must be seen in the broader context of the economy and development today. It must be relevant and responsive to the rapidly changing ecosystem. We have been forced to rethink how we design schools, learning pedagogies and who we put at the centre of that design. We will be learning, adapting, and constantly evolving this design.

A FUTURE PROOF LEARNING APPROACH

It is perhaps a unanimous agreement that education, across the spectrum, must evolve to equip children with the skills they need to thrive in a world that is ever-changing and unpredictable. Think about it. 85 percent of all jobs in 2030 have not been invented yet and this is a cycle that will continue.

A must for education now, and in the next decade would be to be relevant to the workplaces of the future. This means students will be taught skills that are essential to their success. They will be prepared for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve unpredictable issues that aren't yet anticipated.

While technical skills will remain essential, soft skills will gain prominence, making them an integral part of learning. Skills such as complex problem solving, creativity, innovation, analytical thinking, emotional intelligence, and empathy will be critical in a future-proof curriculum.

NEW-AGE LEARNERS WITH AGENCY

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People from around the world visualized what higher education could look like in 2050 and beyond

H igher education  is expected to be inclusive, student-centered,  responsive and connected   

H igher education  plays a crucial role in individual empowerment, community development, societal progress and global cohesion   

Issues relating to access and inclusion were the most frequently mentioned, representing 30% of the total responses to the consultation’s questions on  higher education  

As more people graduate from higher education ,   sustainable development  will become  more attainable   

“If higher education is  available and affordable to all , everyone could have a better future in 2050”,  wrote a respondent  from Namibia. She, as well as  1 , 200  others  in almost 100 countries  participated in  an online public consultation on the futures of higher education led by the UNESCO International Institute of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC).   

The  public consultation  illuminated  people’s hopes and concerns for the years ahead. The survey revealed key themes about how higher education in 2050 should be: inclusive, student-centered, with different ways of organizing knowledge, and connected at multiple levels to society, communities, and the planet.  

Pathways to 2050 and beyond: Findings from a public consultation on the futures of higher education  was coordinated by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education (IESALC). Between May and August 2021, the public consultation was open to all members of the public  through  a short survey , available in several languages. 

The  findings from the consultation,  launched on November 25, 2021, illustrated rich diversity in people’s desires and concerns, advancing multiple ideas for higher education and its contribution s  to better futures  for all . The plural concept of futures envisions a horizon both towards and beyond 2050 and encompasses the many ways that the futures might be.

Within the broad global diversity, it was still possible to identify four shared pathways towards these futures: quality of life, social change, environmental care and development of technology.

The pathways derived from the hopes expressed for human wellbeing, peace, social justice, research and innovation, sustainability, and advances in technology research. They were also drawn from issues that worry people for the future, from health concerns, poor quality of life, continuation of social inequalities and inequities, war and conflict, the degradation of the environment to unethical uses of technology.

This report connects the pathways to 2050 and beyond to respondents’ visions for higher education by offering more detailed insights on the different roles that higher education could play and the changes that might need to be made to achieve them.

The key themes for higher education in 2050 begin with  higher education for all . Issues relating to access and inclusion were the most frequently mentioned, representing 30% of the total responses to the consultation’s questions on higher education. 

Topics relating to students were also high on respondents’ agendas, with 2 8 %  of  responses linked to the idea that higher education futures can be  student-centered . 22% of responses were related to ways to support higher education’s teaching and research functions and were grouped under the theme of the  organization of knowledge .  

Finally, 20% of responses were associated with how higher education could be more responsive and  connected at multiple  levels to society, communities, and the planet.

The message was clear: higher education plays a crucial role in individual empowerment, community development, societal progress, and global cohesion. As more people graduate from higher education, the higher level of education in societies will make sustainable development more attainable. 

Across societies, higher education is seen as a mechanism to address today’s inequities, including differences within populations based on social group and economic standing and urban/rural divides that have typically disadvantaged those in remote communities.

Looking ahead to 2050, the benefits of higher education could be more equally available within states and across borders, led by principles of social justice such as access to resources, participation, diversity, inclusivity, and human rights.

Concerning the impact of Covid-19, respondents were hopeful that higher education institutions would be beacons of information, providing reliable and relevant knowledge to overcome future crises and at the same time becoming more resistant to their impact. Respondents also showed continued anxiety around health issues and their intersections with climate change, inequalities, and other global challenges.  

UNESCO and the futures of education 

This UNESCO IESALC project on the  Futures of higher education  has been undertaken within the framework of the UNESCO initiative on the futures of education, which seeks to “ reimagine how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet . ” 

A new flagship UNESCO report,  Reimagining Our Futures Together , launched at the UNESCO General Conference in November 2021  makes the case for a new social contract for  education,  rebalanc ing  how we live with Earth and  with each other .  Reimagining Our Futures Together highlights the importance of higher education in  catalyzing  educational transformation in the years ahead. 

UNESCO IESALC’s contributions to the UNESCO futures of education initiative include  Thinking Higher and Beyond: Perspectives on the futures of higher education to 2050 , published in May 2021, and this report  Pathways to 2050: Findings from a public consultation on the futures of higher education , published in November 2021, which includes an interactive version and an open access dataset . The next  phase  of the  project  is a youth consultation on the futures of higher education. 

Download the report Pathways to 2050 and beyond: Findings from a public consultation on the futures of higher education 

Discover the interactive version of the project Futures of Higher Education. 

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Life in 2050: A Glimpse at Education in the Future

Thanks to growing internet access and emerging technologies, the way we think of education will dramatically change..

Matthew S. Williams

Welcome back to our “Life in 2050” series, where we examine how changes that are anticipated for the coming decades will alter the way people live their lives. In previous installments, we looked at how warfare , the economy , housing , and space exploration (which took two installments to cover!) will change by mid-century.

Today, we take a look at education and how social, economic, and technological changes will revolutionize the way children, youth, and adults go to school. Whereas modern education has generally followed the same model for over three hundred years, a transition is currently taking place that will continue throughout this century.

This transition is similar to what is also taking place in terms of governance, the economy, and recreation. In much the same way, the field of education will evolve in this century to adapt to four major factors. They include:

• Growing access to the internet
• Improvements in technology
• Distributed living and learning
• A new emphasis on problem-solving and gamification

The resulting seismic shift expected to occur by 2050 and after will be tantamount to a revolution in how we think about education and learning. Rather than a centralized structure where information is transmitted, and retention is tested, the classroom of the future is likely to be distributed in nature and far more hands-on.

To the next generations, education in the future will look a lot more like playtime than schooling!

A Time-Honored Model

Since the 19th century, public education has become far more widespread. In 1820, only 12% of people worldwide could read and write. As of 2016, that figure was reversed, where only 14% of the world’s population remained illiterate. Beyond basic literacy, the overall level of education has also increased steadily over time.

Since the latter half of the 20th century, secondary and post-secondary studies (university and college) have expanded considerably across the world. Between 1970 and 2020 , the percentage of adults with no formal education went from 23% to less than 10%; those with a partial (or complete) secondary education went from 16% to 36%; and those with a post-secondary education from about 3.3% to 10%.

Of course, there remains a disparity between the developing and developed world when it comes to education outcomes. According to data released in 2018 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the percentage of people to graduate secondary school (among their 38 member nations) was 76.86% for men and 84.82% for women.

The same data indicated that among OECD nations, an average of 36.55% of the population (29.41% men and 44.10% women) received a post-secondary degree. This ranges from a Bachelor’s degree (24.07% men, 36.91% women) and a Master’s degree (10.5% men, 16.17% women) to a Ph.D. (less than 1% of men and women).

Despite this expansion in learning, the traditional model of education has remained largely unchanged since the 19th century. This model consists of people divided by age (grades), learning a standardized curriculum that is broken down by subject (maths, sciences, arts, social sciences, and athletics), and being subject to evaluation (quizzes, tests, final exam).

This model has been subject to revision and expansion over time, mainly in response to new technologies, socio-political developments, and economic changes. However, the structure has remained largely intact, with the institutions, curricula, and accreditation standards subject to centralized oversight and control.

Global Internet

According to a 2019 report compiled by the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs — titled “ World Population Prospects 2019 ” — the global population is expected to reach 9.74 billion by mid-century. With a population of around 5.29 billion, Asia will still be the most populous continent on the planet.

However, it will be Africa that experiences the most growth between now and mid-century. Currently, Africa has a population of 1.36 billion, which is projected to almost double by 2050 — reaching up to 2.5 billion (an increase of about 83%). This population growth will be mirrored by economic growth, which will then drive another sort of growth.

According to a 2018 report by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 90% of the global population will have access to broadband internet services by 2050, thanks to the growth of mobile devices and satellite internet services . That’s 8.76 billion people, a 220% increase over the 4 billion people (about half of the global population) that have access right now.

The majority of these new users will come from the “developing nations,” meaning countries in Africa, South America, and Oceania. Therefore, the internet of the future will be far more representative of the global population as more stories, events, and trends that drive online behavior come from outside of Europe and North America.

Similarly, the internet will grow immensely as trillions of devices, cameras, sensors, homes, and cities are connected to the internet — creating a massive expansion in the “ Internet of Things .” Given the astronomical amount of data that this will generate on a regular basis, machine learning and AI will be incorporated to keep track of it all, find patterns in the chaos, and even predict future trends.

AI will also advance thanks to research into the human brain and biotechnology, which will lead to neural net computing that is much closer to the real thing. Similarly, this research will lead to more advanced versions of Neuralink , neural implants that will help remedy neurological disorders and brain injuries, and also allow for brain-to-machine interfacing.

This means that later in this century, people will be able to perform all the tasks they rely on their computers for, but in a way that doesn’t require a device. For those who find the idea of neural implants unsettling or repugnant, computing will still be possible using smart glasses, smart contact lenses , and wearable computers .

From Distance Ed to MOOCs

In the past year, the coronavirus and resulting school closures have been a major driving force for the growth of online learning. However, the trend towards decentralization was underway long before that, with virtual classrooms and online education experiencing considerable growth over the past decade.

In fact, a report compiled in February of 2020 by Research and Markets indicated that by 2025, the online education market would be valued at about $320 billion USD . This represents a growth of 170% — and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.23% since 2019 when the e-learning industry was valued at $187.87 billion USD .

What’s more, much of this growth will be powered by economic progress and rising populations in the developing nations (particularly in Africa, Asia, and South America). Already, online education is considered a cost-effective means to address the rising demand for education in developing nations.

As Stefan Trines, a research editor with the World Education News & Reviews, explained in an op-ed he penned in August of 2018 :

“While still embryonic, digital forms of education will likely eventually be pursued in the same vein as traditional distance learning models and the privatization of education, both of which have helped increase access to education despite concerns over educational quality and social equality.

“Distance education already plays a crucial role in providing access to education for millions of people in the developing world. Open distance education universities in Bangladesh, India, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey alone currently enroll more than 7 million students combined.”

While barriers remain in the form of technological infrastructure (aka. the “digital divide”), the growth of internet access in the next few decades will be accompanied by an explosion in online learning. Another consequence will be the proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other forms of e-learning, which will replace traditional distance education.

Here too, the growth in the past few years has been very impressive (and indicative of future trends). Between 2012 and 2018 , the number of MOOCs available increased by more than 683%, while the total number of students enrolled went from 10 million (in 2013) to 81 million, and the number of universities offering them increased by 400% (from 200 to 800).

Between 2020 and 2050 , the number of people without any formal education will decline from 10% to 5% of the global population. While the number of people with a primary and lower secondary education is expected to remain largely the same, the number of people with secondary education is projected to go from 21% to 29% and post-secondary education from 11% to 18.5%.

For developing nations, distributed learning systems will offer a degree of access and flexibility that traditional education cannot. This is similar to the situation in many remote areas of the world, where the necessary infrastructure doesn’t always exist (i.e., roads, school buses, schoolhouses, etc.).

New Technologies & New Realities

Along with near-universal internet access, there are a handful of technologies that will make education much more virtual, immersive, and hands-on. These include augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), haptics , cloud computing, and machine learning (AI). Together, advances in these fields will be utilized to enhance education.

By definition, AR refers to interactions with physical environments that are enhanced with the help of computer-mediated images and sounds, while VR consists of interacting with computer-generated simulated environments. However, by 2050, the line between simulated and physical will be blurred to the point where they are barely distinguishable.

This will be possible thanks to advances in “haptics,” which refers to technology that stimulates the senses. Currently, this technology is limited to stimulating the sensation of touch and the perception of motion. By 2050, however, haptics, AR, and VR are expected to combine in a way that will be capable of creating totally realistic immersive environments.

These environments will stimulate the five major senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) as well as somatosensory perception — pressure, pain, temperature, etc. For students, this could mean simulations that allow the student to step into a moment in history and to see and feel what it was like to live in another time and place — with proper safety measures (let’s not forget that history is full of violence!).

This technology could extend beyond virtual environments and allow students the opportunity to visit places all around the globe and experience what it feels like to actually be there. It’s even possible that this technology will be paired with remote-access robotic hosts so students can physically interact with the local environment and people.

Cloud computing will grow in tandem with increased internet access, leading to an explosion in the amount of data that a classroom generates and has access to. The task of managing this data will be assisted by machine learning algorithms and classroom AIs that will keep track of student tasks, learning, retention, and assess their progress.

New & Personalized Curriculums

In fact, AI-driven diagnostic assessments are likely to replace traditional grading, tests, and exams as the primary means of measuring student achievement. Rather than being given letter grades or pass/fail evaluations, students will need to fulfill certain requirements in order to unlock new levels in their education.

The ease with which students can connect to classrooms will also mean that teachers will no longer need to be physically present in a classroom. By 2050, “ virtual teacher ” is likely to become an actual job description! Ongoing progress in the field of AI and social robotics is also likely to result in classrooms that are led by virtual or robotic teachers and education assistants.

Speaking of robotics, emerging technologies and the shifting nature of work in the future will be reflected in the kinds of tasks students perform. For this reason, students are sure to spend a significant portion of their lessons learning how to code and build robots , take apart and reassemble complex machines, and other tasks that will enhance their STEM skills.

Other professions that emerge between now and 2050 are also likely to have an impact on student education. Given their importance to future generations, students are sure to learn about additive manufacturing (3D printing), space travel, renewable energy, and how to create virtual environments, blockchains , and digital applications .

In addition to adapting to new demands, school curriculums are likely to become a lot more decentralized as a result of technological changes. On the one hand, schools are likely to abandon compartmentalized study — math, science, language, literature, social studies, etc. — in favor of more blended learning activities that cut across these boundaries.

Gaming, Problem Solving, & Incentives

Another major change is the way education is expected to become “gamified.” This is the philosophy behind Ad Astra , a private school created by Elon Musk and educator Joshua Dahn for Musk’s children and those of SpaceX’s employees. Since then, this school has given way to Astra Nova , which follows the same philosophy, but is open to the general public.

With their emphasis on destructured learning and focus on problem-solving, these schools provide something of a preview for what education will look like down the road. As Musk remarked in a  2013 interview with Sal Khan, founder of the online education platform Khan Academy :

“What is education? You’re basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain. And it’s actually amazingly bad in conventional education because it shouldn’t be like this huge chore… The more you can gamify the process of learning, the better. For my kids, I don’t have to encourage them to play video games. I have to pry them out of their hands.”

This approach is similar to the Montessori method of education , where students engage in self-directed learning activities in a supportive and well-equipped environment. While many practices have come to be included under the heading of “Montessori school,” the general idea is to avoid using highly structured and transmission-based methods.

Combined with cutting-edge technology, this same philosophy is projected to become far more widespread and will be possible without the need for physical classrooms, schools, textbooks, etc. In this respect, it is the Synthesis School , another spin-off of Ad Astra, that provides the closest approximation of what the future of education will be like.

The Synthesis School is an open-access educational platform that takes the problem-solving and gamified approach of Ad Astra and Astra Nova and makes it available as an enrichment activity to the entire world (for a fee). In the future, children and youths from all over the world could be following the same process: Logging in from just about anywhere, forming groups, and playing games that develop our faculties.

The growing use of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will also have an effect on schooling. In terms of the future economy, these technologies could replace traditional fiat money and banking. But in education, they could facilitate an entirely new system of reward and punishment.

Here too, Ad Astra and Astra Nova offer a preview of what this might look like. In these schools, students are encouraged to earn and trade a unit of currency called the “ Astra .” This system is designed to reward students for good behavior while also teaching them about money management and entrepreneurship.

By 2050, the majority of students around the world may no longer have to physically go to school in order to get an education. Instead, they will be able to log in from their home, a common room in their building, or a dedicated space in their community. From there, they will join students from all around the world and engage in problem-solving tasks, virtual tours, and hands-on activities.

For hundreds of millions of students, this will represent a chance to at a brighter future for themselves and others. For many children, it will be an opportunity to learn about the world beyond their front door and how to facilitate the kind of changes that will benefit us all.

For others, the transformation of education that is anticipated in the coming decades is a chance to fulfill the dream of countless generations. As long as education has existed as a formal institution, educators have wrestled with questions regarding the best way to impart knowledge, foster intellectual acumen, and inspire future leaders.

As Socrates famously said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” Through technology that allows us to create education that is tailored to the individual, universal in nature, and decentralized in structure, we may finally have found the means for ensuring that every student finds their path to success.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

Matthew S. Williams Matthew S Williams is an author, a writer for Universe Today, and the curator of their Guide to Space section. His works include sci-fi/mystery The Cronian Incident and his articles have been featured in Phys.org, HeroX, Popular Mechanics, Business Insider, Gizmodo, and IO9, ScienceAlert, Knowridge Science Report, and Real Clear Science, with topics ranging from astronomy and Earth sciences to technological innovation and environmental issues. He is also a former educator and a 5th degree Black Belt Tae Kwon Do instructor. He lives on Vancouver Island with his wife and family.  

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What will the student experience look like in 2030?

• May 08, 2019

Here’s how technology will evolve the student experience over the next 13 years.

In 1989, Back to the Future II was released, depicting a vision of the future in 2015 that included hoverboards, wearable technology, video calling, fingerprint recognition and tablet computers. It’s no surprise then that a couple of years ago the UK media compared these forecasts with reality, pointing out that many of the predictions were more accurate than they thought possible at the time. Can this be done when predicting the future of today’s classroom?

The student experience has evolved a lot over the last two decades, transitioning from a static, one way teaching model where the teacher instructs a group of students with the same materials at the same pace, to one that is much more interactive, social and mobile. But what will it look like in 2030?

As technology continues to play a big role in this shift, we’ve taken a look at how the student experience will evolve even further over the next 13 years:

• Mobile will trump traditional learning

Mobile and social platforms have transformed the world, and over the last few years we have seen them have a growing impact on the education sector. Young people are notorious for being attached to their mobile devices, using them to communicate, socialise, and more recently, study. Indeed, a recent report from the YMCA Awards revealed that almost half of students are using smartphones to assist them when learning.

Young peo ple are the most technologically sophisticated and socially-conscious generation in history, with 2.5 million 13-17 year olds using Facebook in the UK, while 39 percent of Instagram users are aged between 16-24, and Snapchat – renowned for dominating the youth – saw its active users double from 100 million to 200 million in 2016. Today’s students have an entirely different world view to previous generations, having grown up in a world full of choice and limitless options. They have high expectations, demanding fast, easy access to content wherever they are. Over the next few years these expectations will increase.

By 2030, it will be the norm for students to have the flexibility to read, interact and engage in learning activities on-the-go. Having access to a fully equipped learning management system (LMS) on any mobile device will undoubtedly transform how and when students consume content. Mobile learning will enable students to visualise their workload, stay on top of deadlines, keep up with discussions, and read course notifications wherever they are from their own smartphone or tablet. Their learning materials will be in the palm of their hands.

We will also see them learning via platforms they are accustomed to, such as Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, features of social media will spill into the classroom over the next decade, creating a bigger gap between the traditional way of learning and delivering training via the digital tools and devices students expect.

• Gaming will go up a gear

The growth of mobile technology within education will also enable a much more interactive, gamified learning experience; something that is already becoming recognised as an important part of modern-day learning. Students like the virtual and interactive learning environment that complements their digital skills, recognise them for getting an answer right and adds an element of competitiveness. Features such as quizzing and badges are starting to enter the classroom, but by 2030 they will form an integral part of education and the curriculum at all levels.

Gamification will add a more creative, dynamic element to learning. By offering students the opportunity to take quizzes on their mobile devices when they’re away from the classroom, teachers will be able to see their responses in real-time, giving them the flexibility to assess progress and adapt their learning there and then. These activities have the potential to turn an otherwise routine learning exercise into an imaginative activity that will motivate students to work harder and provide teachers with valuable insight into student performance.

• Video learning will be the norm

  Modern-day learning has already started to involve students watching lectures on their phone, tablet or laptop when they’re at home, moving the traditional “classroom” into out-of-hours. Through the use of technology, classrooms will become increasingly “flipped”, reversing the learning environment by delivering content that teachers would have previously shared in the classroom online and bringing activities often associated with homework into the classroom.

This will take off in the lead up to 2030 and will lead to a much more flexible, collaborative and interactive environment. We will increasingly see teachers and students communicate via video, with teachers presenting lessons online with the aim of actively discussing what was taught when in the classroom. Video-sharing websites, such as YouTube, also offer an array of educational videos which students will begin to rely on when learning. In fact, a report by Childwise last year revealed that half of all 5-16 years olds watch video clips on YouTube each day. It’s a platform that young people use to connect with others, access news and have fun, and learning will be no exception in 2030.

Over the next 10-15 years we will see huge transformations in education which will largely be driven by student demands and advancements in technology. The classroom, whilst still important, will be complemented heavily by mobile and video learning as students increasingly seek to consume and access learning materials on their own terms and on the devices they are familiar with. The use of gaming and online rewards will also no longer be seen as optional or nice to have, it will be a requisite for any school or university wanting to attract and engage with new students.

As the education sector evolves, it’ll be interesting to come back in 2030 and see how many of my predictions have come true.

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What if we get things right? Visions for 2030

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We asked members of our Global Future Councils - academics, business leaders and members of civil society - to imagine a better world in 2030. Only by thinking about where we want to be tomorrow can we prompt the action we need today. Here's what they had to say...

We're winning the fight against climate change - welcome to CO-topia

By 2030 your CO2 emissions will be far down. The air you breathe is cleaner. Nature is recovering. Saving the climate does involve huge change, but it might make us happier at the same time.

Have you read?

This is what 2030 could look like if we win the war on climate change.

Here is one version of CO-topia: you walk out of your door in the morning into a green and liveable city. You can choose to call upon a car. An algorithm has calculated the smartest route for the vehicle, and it picks up a few other people on the way. Since the city council has banned private cars in the city, tons of new mobility services have arrived. It is cheaper for you not to own your own car, and it reduces congestion, so you arrive at your destination more quickly and don’t have to spend time looking for parking. There are a lot fewer cars on the streets and the rest are electric. All electricity is green by the way.

Single use plastics are a distant memory. When you buy stuff, you buy something that lasts. But because you buy a lot fewer things, you can actually afford better quality products. “Refuse, reuse, reduce, recycle” is the new way of looking at things. Because citizens have buying so much stuff, they have more money to spend on services: cleaning, gardening, laundry help, healthy meals easy to cook, entertainment, experiences, fabulous new restaurants. All of which brings the average modern person more options and more free time. Picking up the mantle against climate change may not be so bad after all.

Cutting violent crime in half

The world has an opportunity to dramatically reduce some of the most egregious forms of violence over the next decade. To do this, we will need the same kind of energy and dedication that was mobilized to eradicate other killers like smallpox.

We can halve most forms of violence by 2030. Here's how

The first step to halving violence by 2030 is to have a clear sense of how it is distributed in time and space. Take the case of lethal violence. There is a misconception that more people die violently in war zones than in countries at peace. While total levels of violence oscillate from year to year, it turns out that the reverse is true. The UN Office for Drugs and Crime estimates that the ratio is roughly 5:1. Put simply, many more people are dying violently as a result of organized and interpersonal crime in countries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico than in internal conflicts in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. This is not to say that one type of lethal violence is more important than the other, but rather to ensure a more fact-based diagnosis.

The only way to make a serious dent in violence is by acknowledging its full scope and scale together with the factors that drive it. This must be accompanied by sustained investment in reducing the risks and improving the protection of affected areas and populations, and investing in solutions with a positive track record. In the US, for example, research suggests that a focus on reducing lethal violence in the 40 cities with the highest rates of homicide could save more than 12,000 lives a year. In Latin America, reducing homicide in just the seven most violent countries over the next 10 years would save more than 365,000 lives .

Empowering 8 billion minds with mobile technology

The year is 2030. Imagine this: a young man called Ajay lives in India. In his teens, he experienced an episode of depression. So when, as a new undergraduate, he was offered the chance to sign up for a mental healthcare service, he was keen to do so.

Ajay chose a service that used mobile phone and internet technologies to enable him to carefully manage his personal information. Ajay would later develop clinical depression, but he spotted that something wasn’t right early on when the feedback from his mental healthcare app highlighted changes in his sociability (he was sending fewer messages and leaving his room only to go to campus.)

Shortly thereafter, he received a message on his phone inviting him to get in touch with a mental health therapist: the message also offered a choice of channels through which he could get in touch. Now in his mid-20s, Ajay’s depression is well under control. He has learned to recognise when he’s too anxious and beginning to feel low, and he can practice the techniques he has learned using online tools, as well as easily accessing high-quality advice. His progress through the rare depressive episodes he still experiences is carefully tracked. If he does not respond to the initial, self-care treatment, he can be quickly referred to a medical professional. Ajay’s experience is replicated across the world in low, middle and high-income countries. Similar technology-supported mental illness prevention, prediction and treatment services are available to all.

Clean air is a human right

After a decade of interventions, of activists and policy-makers fighting side by side, clean air is recognized as a basic human right and cities like Delhi see blue skies throughout the year.

What changed from those dark days of 2020 to today, is the early recognition of health impacts of air pollution by governments, which spurred action around the globe.

The urgency of the situation was recognized by 2020 and governments in some of the most polluted geographies came together to share knowledge and practice on how to lower emissions. Industries took the lead in looking at their own value chains, sectors like energy and transportation became leaders in cutting out carbon and other toxic pollutants from their factories. The steep decline of the fossil fuel industry by mid-century gave way to technology and innovation in these traditionally carbon intensive sectors. Today emissions pricing has made pollution pricey – it is cheaper and more profitable to be cleaner.

We build a fair and democratic gig economy

The real future of the gig economy that we should be looking to is one characterised by democratic ownership.

How to build a fairer gig economy in 4 steps

There is no reason why gig workers shouldn’t be their own bosses. The platform cooperativism movement shines a light on some of the real potentials for worker owned- and managed-platforms for every possible service. We can also think about running platforms as civic utilities.

In many places, platforms are becoming utilities. Think for instance of Uber’s desire to become an operating system for the city. Our cities will undoubtedly need operating systems. But we should ask ourselves if we want a privately managed operating system run by an unaccountable company based in another country. Or a locally-managed, locally-owned, democratic, and accountable one.

We aren’t going to be able to turn back the clock to a world with no platforms. But by looking to strategies that involve transparency, accountability, worker power, and democratic ownership, we have in front of us the tools to move towards a less exploitative and more just platform economy. The platform economy in 2030 could be one in which consumers know more about their impacts, regulators are enforcing minimum standards, workers are exercising their collective power, and we have all found ways of building, supporting, and using democratically run and accountable platforms.

There's a new platform for peace in the Middle East

After two decades of devastating wars in the Middle East, 2020 marked a turn-around leading to the formation of a new regional security forum by 2030 supported by key global powers, including the United States, China and Russia. The forum did not replace traditional regional rivalries or end all conflict, but leading global and regional powers recognized the risks of growing instability and the value of a region-wide mechanism for conflict prevention and management.

Until 2030, the Middle East was the outlier in the world, being the only region to lack a forum for security dialogue. Regional alignments were largely based on the balance of power logic with cooperation limited to containing common external threats, most notably Iran. No venue existed where all regional parties could exchange threat perceptions and engage in confidence-building on areas of common concern. The short-lived Madrid process in the early 1990s had achieved some limited success but was too narrowly linked to progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace, which sadly did not come to pass.

Shifting regional alignments and a dangerous escalation led global powers to see common interests in stabilizing the region through a multilateral forum. At the same time, regional leaders become more open to alternatives that favored diplomacy over conflict, particularly as they faced difficult socioeconomic pressures at home to meet the demands of their rising youth populations. This confluence of global and regional interests provided an opening to launch a new cooperative security dialogue.

We create cities where you can walk to everything you need

Politicians love big infrastructure projects, but do we need them? Clearly new infrastructure for expanding cities is important, but maybe there is a more important question to ask: How well are we using our existing infrastructure?

In the 1980s, when the baby boomers arrived in large numbers at universities around the world, most campuses simply expanded at great expense. One key exception was Cape Town University. Unable to expand its footprint, the university asked the above question and was surprised to find how little its infrastructure was being used. Lecture theatres, for example, were only being used for 17% of the available hours. Over the next 30 years, Cape Town University trebled its numbers on the campus without any major building programmes, simply by reprogramming its timetable. The result was a more vibrant campus and big savings in expenditure.

Much of the infrastructure in our cities is equally underused. Freeways are designed for peak hours; schools have one session per day, usually in the morning, leaving the afternoon and evening free; and the list goes on. A study entitled Transforming Australian Cities showed that if all future development was contained within existing metro boundaries, cities would save $110 billion in infrastructure costs over 50 years for every 1 million people added.

My vision for 2030 is a world where cities make better use of the infrastructure they have, before building new projects at huge financial and environmental cost. This would see people living in closer proximity with good access to essential infrastructure such as public transport, social services and high quality public spaces, as was the case in cities prior to the motor car and urban sprawl; cities, in other words, where walking is the dominant form of transport and the street is the dominant location for public life.

Clean electricity will dominate the energy sector

If we get things right, by 2030 the global carbon concentration will drop to 350 parts per million from 407 parts today. By then, the energy sector will largely be electricity, and at least half of the electricity is from renewable resources. Deep de-carbonizing efforts will be demonstrated by governments and corporates, and yes, even the ordinary members of the public.

By 2030, electricity will also be democratized and people will be empowered with choices and they will choose energy sources that sustain life. Power generations will also shift from centralized structure to greater distributed renewable generations. The electricity system will be defined by further digitalization, enabling the concept of sharing economy in the energy space.

By 2030, trading of excess solar electricity with neighbours and sharing of electric vehicles within the community will be the way of living. Children will be taught to live in harmony with the environment. All these did not happen by chance. It happened because there was sufficient willpower to deliberately shape the future of energy. It happened because the need to preserve the future of our children finally matters.

Virtual reality will protect our mental health

I see a world where technology such as smartphones improve mental health and reduce suicide risk. Sensors in smartphones combined with AI will allow software to create “buddies” that will assimilate mental health knowledge about each person, and then help them navigate safely day-to-day. This so-called ‘digital phenotyping’ uses both passively collected data, voice analysis, cognitive indicators and self-reporting from smartphones, and it will yield these prediction and monitoring capabilities within a decade.

I predict that people around the world will have continuous, immediate and effective access to digital therapeutics for mental health. Support will be offered proactively and ‘just in time’. The clunky and rigid digital interventions we have today will be transformed into interactive games and experiences that deliver ‘therapeutic content’ enjoyably, by stealth, using technologies such as virtual reality.

I see people having access to mental health dashboards on their devices so that they can share their data - which they own - when and how they wish. I see more research into how people relate and learn to live as ‘cyborgs’ from an early age. I see the potential of social networks to be used to reduce stigma and promote understanding.

The circular economy has become the economy

Let me share my vision for 2030. By then, nobody talks about the circular economy; it’s just the economy.

Here's how a circular economy could change the world by 2030

We wince at the grim days of the 2010s, when billions of tonnes of materials were extracted every year to meet the functional needs of society – but only a fraction was ever recycled back into our economies.

Rapidly falling technology costs created major opportunities to reduce waste. We focused on capturing more value from existing infrastructure and ‘designing out’ the impacts of pollution, climate change, toxins and congestion. We got our act together.

What was the one thing that made the biggest difference? Some will point to the youth movement that drove awareness and campaigned for action. Others will champion the new breakthroughs in technology that were unthinkable in 2020. These played a part - but we would never have got here if the world’s lawmakers had stayed on the sidelines.

After all, it was the public sector and policymakers who could strongly influence industries and could steer outcomes at a system level. The private sector wasn’t allowed to leave the public sector behind, either; the right rules were put in place to ensure that jobs were preserved, and new ones created.

Sound good? I’ll see you there.

The middle class grows and inequality shrinks

Streets are made for people not cars

The future of transportation, as most of us imagine it, is dominated by driverless cars - but to truly build a sustainable future for our cities, we need to reduce the numbers of cars on the roads full-stop. This can be achieved through a fairly simple, practical and proven strategy: temporarily taking cars off our streets altogether.

In the mid-1970s, the Colombian capital Bogotá saw the birth of what would become a global movement called Ciclovia, often known as ‘open streets’ in English-speaking countries, which entails the creation of car-free routes throughout the city every Sunday and public holiday.

As well as improving public health, both by encouraging people to take exercise as well as reducing traffic pollution, Ciclovia fosters a sense of inclusion and ownership of their city among its participants. It has even helped to erase barriers between historically segregated communities.

This model has been replicated all over the world, especially in other Latin American countries and in cities the length of Africa. To ensure sustainable cities all around the world, we must move away from our over-dependency on the automobile. Temporary interventions - like car-free days - work with existing assets and focus on shifting people’s perception, which will ultimately shape how we view and exercise sustainable urban planning in the long term.

An end to all preventable forms of suffering

By 2030, I envision a world free from preventable forms of suffering, especially those inflicted by infectious and non-communicable diseases. This can easily be achieved through the equitable application of new technologies such as blockchain, the internet of things and artificial intelligence (AI), which can drive the development of innovative tools to make healthcare delivery more accessible, affordable and - importantly - more precise to all of humanity, and particularly to people in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

For example, using AI to develop algorithms that take into account the influence of genetic diversity and environment on drug responses would go a long way towards increasing positive outcomes and reducing adverse drug effects. Using blockchain technology to track ‘open data’ agreements, meanwhile, will benefit individuals or communities that participate in research studies. Thus, accessibility to affordable and innovative precision healthcare products such as drugs, vaccines and precise prevention guidelines should significantly reduce the level of suffering caused by disease.

Unfortunately, the technologies described above that could accelerate my vision remain poorly accessible by LMICs despite their potential to hasten development in these regions. The factors hindering their uptake are multifaceted and, in some cases, historical. We need to increase awareness and knowledge around these technologies, while creating culturally relevant guidelines to guide their uptake and reducing the costs of implementation. This will, in turn, promote their adoption and reduce the likelihood of any disparity that might be created by uneven access to these technologies globally.

Technology supports the challenges of our ageing populations

Many developed countries are facing a combination of declining birth rates and increased longevity. This poses challenges to many social systems that have taken a pyramid-shaped population structure - a broad section of younger people supporting a small pinnacle of the elderly - for granted.

Some of the problems, such as pensions and health insurance systems, are well recognized and may be solved by redistributing benefits and costs under political initiatives. But there are other issues that cannot be solved this way.

One example is the shortage of blood for transfusion. Tens of millions of patients receive blood transfusions worldwide every year thanks to blood donors - most of whom are from younger generations. In Japan, 80% of the patients receiving blood transfusions are over the age of 60, whereas 90% of blood donors are younger than 60. By 2030, a more than 10% shortage of blood for transfusion is expected, and this gap will continue to worsen.

A shortage of blood is something redistribution cannot solve even with a social consensus. To compensate for this expected shortfall, a project to mass-produce platelets and other blood components from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) is currently under development at my biotech start-up, Megakaryon, which I founded with the support of the Japanese Government.

There are other areas where technological innovation may offer solutions to the challenges presented by our ageing populations, such as robotics assisting in caring for older people. These challenges, however, are unavoidable and technological moon shots need time. The next 10 years will be critical for our preparations. We will only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out in 2030. Japan is set to be the first country where the population tide goes out and can be considered as a showcase for the problem.

We overhaul economic policy to move beyond GDP

For the global economy to be successful over the next 10 years, a different mix of economic policies is needed. It is high time to act.

A public policy rethink is overdue in three major dimensions. First, less is more in terms of central bank action. Targeted fiscal stimulus and more supply-side reforms need to do the heavy lifting now. We should remember Reagan’s supply-side economics and not just believe blindly in Keynes’ demand stimulus. Second, we need to respond decisively to the inevitable economic consequences of climate change and demographics. Third, economists' toolkits need to take into account key societal factors. Focusing on aggregate macro variables, like GDP and the consumer price index, is not a recipe for future economic success. This is even more true against the current backdrop of an ageing and ever more unequal society, and political polarization.

We have a lot to gain if we draw the right lessons from the past decade. The current economic realities of many societies are not pretty. Public policies need to take into account their distributional consequences. Living standards increase for everyone when conducive public policies allow and empower individuals and corporations to thrive. As such, we have an inherent self-interest in departing from the status quo. For societies to be better off in 10 years' time, the focus of our public policy needs to change.

Quantum materials will service humanity's problems

'Old age' care starts when you're young

If old age represents the accumulation of every advantage and disadvantage built up throughout a person’s life, whether economic, social, environmental or behavioural, then surely the solution to healthy ageing lies in a whole-life approach. However, concerns about a patient’s financial, social and emotional health often emerge too late, and well after a serious medical diagnosis. A holistic, multi-disciplinary and person-centred model of care can ensure dignity, comfort and well-being during the final phase of a patient’s life.

My vision for 2030 is that these comprehensive and wellness-oriented aspects of care are integrated much earlier in each person’s life, and become part of primary care. As the global burden of disease shifts towards non-communicable diseases, much more can be done around the world to enhance the capacity of the primary care sector to care for a person’s overall welfare. This approach would include addressing socio-economic constraints and their impact on lifestyle choices (such as diet, exercise, alcohol and tobacco consumption), mental health issues such as depression, stress and loneliness, and other social or environmental barriers, all of which are proven to have significant repercussions for the ageing process.

As an easily accessible point of contact the healthcare system for millions of people, primary care providers hold the key to shaping the ageing process for the better. Beyond preventative healthcare and screening for early disease detection and management, how can sound policies empower primary care providers to offer services like lifestyle counselling or tailored care plans that promote better health proactively? It is time for policymakers and industry leaders to reimagine the way societies structure, finance and deliver primary care to promote healthy ageing for all.

We use technology to make policies based on evidence

Legislators and regulators require strong policy development tools to capitalize on the opportunities that come with technological advancement. These include policy redesign and fit-for-purpose regulatory and enforcement actions - all while balancing opportunities, impacts, risks and security aspects.

To maximise the benefits of science and technology, elected decision-makers need access to evidence-based analysis which walks them through the impact of proposed policy changes. Defining problems clearly using thorough cost-benefit analysis and studies of distributional impacts will be central to understanding and taking advantage of innovative technologies.

Regulators should work with affected stakeholders, industry leaders and technology partners to incorporate technological innovation into their decision-making processes. Involving stakeholders at the design phase will help to both test assumptions with affected parties, and to map-out expected behavioural responses.

Finally, timely publishing of impact analyses is essential to ensure that decision-makers can shape public policy based on early and regular feedback, and that stakeholders can be well-informed of decisions that government has taken.

A new kind of capitalism takes root

In 2030, a new economy is established that addresses the needs of all stakeholders – communities, vendors, customers, employees and company owners. This new breed of new capitalism is enabled thanks to a new way of assessing the performance of companies based on a valuation of their overall impact - a change in which policymakers and standard-setters have played a crucial role. Governments, stock markets and businesses fully embrace the new order that has given rise to a thriving new type of public-private partnership.

This new type of public-private partnership has allowed mankind to effectively address major challenges and to resolve some of them; extreme poverty belongs to the past, as do increasing CO2 emissions levels and the huge volumes of plastic in the ocean. There have been improvements in tackling other challenges, too; forced labour, child labour and corruption - to name a few - have been significantly reduced.

The new way of assessing business performance is based on standardized, comprehensive and simple impact-valuation metrics. These enhance the usual financial statements with other dimensions like society, human rights and the environment, leading to a ‘total impact’ rating that is used by management and investors alike. Governments appreciate ‘total impact’ as key information in understanding the relevance of a sector and individual business, beyond the GDP and employment figures that were the dominant measures of wealth contribution 10 years ago. ‘Total impact’ is a simple way of assessing how much a sector or a business contributes to social coherence, citizens’ wellbeing, environmental protection and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Consumers and investors appreciate the transparency that ‘total impact’ provides for each product.

Impact valuation expresses what matters in monetary terms, allowing the full range of stakeholders to agree what 'good' looks like - in the economy and in society.

Cutting poverty in half with information technology

In 2030 the diversification and sophistication of productive activities, enabled using information and communication technology (ICT), will have contributed to a 50% reduction of poverty around the world.

The first decade of the 21st century showed us that the use of ICT has positive effects on the productivity of individuals, households and the economy in general. The World Bank found that, for developing countries, an increase of 10% in the fixed internet penetration rate was associated with an average increase of 1.38% in the GDP growth rate between 1980 and 2006.

Other studies, meanwhile, have found that when broadband is introduced, GDP per capita is between 2.7% and 3.9% higher than when it has not yet been introduced. Inspired by these international results, Colombia’s National Planning Department (DNP) found in 2018 that increasing the average download speed in Colombia by 1 Mbps is associated with a 2.9% increase in GDP per capita. With this purpose, progress has been made in broadening the access, use and appropriation of ICT. Public efforts to do so were focused on the poor and other vulnerable populations, as well as on rural and remote areas.

Therefore the rapid progress made in closing the digital divide and ensuring the almost half of the world's population who lacked access to the internet in 2019 were connected, was the key element in leading social and economic development up to 2030. This allowed us to enhance the great capacity of innovation, generation of added value and diversification of human ingenuity that - supported by technologies such as artificial intelligence - increased its efficiency and effectiveness. All this was achieved by making sure no one was left behind.

Hyper-transparency is making corruption a thing of the past

In 2030, a primary goal of business is to earn and retain public trust. A narrow focus on shareholder value and regulatory compliance is widely deemed hopelessly regressive, and companies understand that they operate in a hyper-transparent environment in which everything they say or do will instantly become public knowledge. Questions of corporate purpose are no longer approached as marketing exercises, so companies that cannot explain and measure how they provide value to society are failing.

Corporate anti-corruption efforts are no longer formulaic attempts to deflect regulatory pressure, and now address all forms of abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Public disgust over global corruption has forced a reframing of the anti-corruption environment, and governments and businesses have had no choice but to meet the moment by creating meaningful beneficial ownership registries, broadening corporate due-diligence requirements to encompass human rights, and building institutional accountability.

Meanwhile, the role of accountants, lawyers, and other gatekeepers in facilitating corruption has become clear, and new ethical standards have been created. It is now considered unacceptable to avoid taxes, conduct backdoor lobbying, and operate via hidden ownership structures. The systemic impacts of corruption are far better understood. Companies see cooperating to solve profound global challenges as the only way for them to survive and thrive over the long term.

Technology in space underpins security on earth

By 2030, the combination of space technology and AI will have helped us deal with global challenges like deforestation, oil spills, farming, cross-border terrorism and migration flows, and will continue to provide insights that are meaningful at a local level for the economy.

For this to happen, we need to make sure three things happen. First, we will have to apply common ethical standards to the way big data and AI are used. Second, we will need to design AI systems to guarantee privacy and data protection, as well as ensuring transparency to ensure people know when they are interacting with AI. And third, accountability must be established with internal and external independent audits, especially for AI systems whose use affects fundamental rights

If we get this right, integrated satellite and terrestrial networks will ensure secured communications that make governments and societies less prone to destabilization.

There's a global family of fun and functional cities

In year 2030 over 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, have an urban mindset and a community-based reality. Good life choices can be made based on information and data enabled systems that allow freedom of choice combined with proactive service delivery from city to people.

Climate action required a major paradigm shift in cities and impacts the way city life is organized. By combining new technology, AI and systemic change cities are able to provide a sustainable environment that leaves room for individual choice. People will adapt to the new conditions by a combination of public and private products and services that make life functional, secure and fun. Societies based on trust will flourish.

One of the most pressing global challenges is how to provide energy in a sustainable manner. Energy impacts all city life. Holistic leadership needs to be paired with individual behavioral change in order to find solutions for post-carbon life.

Successful cities in year 2030 utilize scalable solutions from around the world. Urban reality will become a global family of cities that deliver the optimal combination of functionality and fun.

Precision medicine is for everyone, not just the rich

It would be amazing to think that by 2030, everyone has access to technologies that enable them to make better health decisions. In this future, precision medicine and personalized medicine can become part of everyone's health options - not just the rich. Everyone is able to acknowledge and balance the limitations of biotechnologies. We know much more about humanity and diseases. Most of all, biotechnology and medicine have not intruded into people's lives and medicalized the ‘normal’ course of life. People are still able to say no to certain interventions, because health and well-being do not come at a cost of relinquishing rights, choice and freedoms.

How do we get there? As we learn more about pregnancy, screening services can add to knowledge of one’s life course, predicting health outcomes before the child is even born. However, as pregnancy testing and screening services are currently developed with increased genetic sequencing, whether and how we can use this new knowledge will be determined by what society currently considers normal – and the application of these technologies is contested in many societies. Without balanced views, pregnancy screening can harm society, but it does not have to.

First of all, we can harness knowledge from low and middle-income countries, to integrate different perspectives. In these parts of the world we are more in tune not just with our bodies, but with our environments. We realise that life is a complex set of inter-dependencies. Social justice and respect for others underpin all our decisions. Finally, we work respectfully and transparently in every decision we make to alleviate suffering based on local needs and not imposed needs.

We’ll get water from the moon to help fuel a new era in space

By 2030, humans extract the first resource in outer space - this could be water on the moon. In addition to water, which can be used to drink and maintain agriculture, the water molecule (H2O) can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, as a clean fuel source. The extraction of water on the moon will not only enable human life to be sustained in space, but it will enable us to build and maintain the necessary space infrastructure, including satellites, to sustain and improve our quality of life on Earth.

By doing so, we do not need to use the resources from our home planet, Earth. Further, our quality of life on will be significantly improved as a result of the innovations we achieve with a sustained human presence in deep space, as well as the extension of the Earth’s economy into space and the subsequent creation of business and jobs. However, in order for all of this to be realized, one key piece of action that needs to be taken today is an international consensus on the rules of engagement for governments and commercial entities to utilize the resources which exist on our moon and in space. Proper governance of space resources is required for a sustainable and peaceful human future. If we can achieve this milestone at the political level, we can elevate our species to a new height.

Digital tech helps to close the gender and wealth gap

Digital technologies are currently shaping and transforming whole societies. Increasing access to data and digital technologies empower people. However, the digital divide still exists and it plays out along different dimensions.

By 2030, I envision an inclusive world where divisions have been reduced - especially the gender divide. For this to work, we need to make sure three things happen. First, strengthening digital technologies skills and lifelong learning to include everyone, notably women and low-income individuals. Second, we will need to tackle risks like cybersecurity risks and the misuse of information. Third, we will need to use the digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help us addressing collective challenges like improving healthcare and curing diseases.

Applying these policies will lead to better lives for all - notably women and low-income groups.

Buildings will respond to their environment

In 2030, buildings and cities will be naturally responsive to their immediate environmental and cultural context as well as the occupants’ physiological, psychological, sociological and economic needs. An extraordinary outdoor and indoor environment quality that enhances happiness, health and well-being will be achieved with super low energy intelligent systems that is adaptive and resilient.

The construction industry that delivers these infrastructures will be highly integrated and innovative, motivated by sustainable propositions rather than short term business financial interests. It will offer a win-win-win platform (people, profit, planet or triple bottom line) for all stakeholders in government, industry, the workforce, and research and development, to allow everyone to live in an environment that supports health.

Change our governance models to harness the power of technology for good

We must stop thinking of technology as a threat. The world has an immense opportunity to leverage new technologies in a way that takes advantage of its strengths.

Reforming the way we govern and manage technology is instrumental to doing the right thing in several battles we have waiting for us. To make sure that artificial intelligence and machine learning do not replicate bias. To have a digital identity that does not undermine privacy. To fight the threat of terrorism without building surveillance states.

Because of this, governance of new tech needs to move beyond the state and subscribe to a more inclusive model — this certainly doesn’t mean that governance should be handed over to the private sector.

It’s time for us to reconsider our social contract: is it really the state that we should be handing over some of our rights to? How should the role of states change in a world where private companies have outsized power to shape our everyday lives? A new type of human-centered governance requires transparency and redress at every step and with every actor that poses a threat to our human rights—and our ability to be human. Human-centered governance means that we move away from centralized power in the sovereign state model to a much more adaptive, multidirectional, and multistakeholder governance setup.

We have a new economy for nature

Our current economic model is based on externalizing environmental costs – it has been built on exploiting nature, generally without concern for consequences or a recognition of limits. There is no doubt that our business models and economic growth have also led to great success and positive outcomes for society in terms of increased health, education and lifting millions out of poverty. However, the data and science are now clear that the costs of this model outweigh the benefits and ‘business as usual’ is simply untenable.

Now is the moment to change the paradigm from making the business case for protecting biodiversity to thinking: who pays for internalizing the externalities created by ‘business as usual’?

Once we have that out in the open we can deal with re-defining a new paradigm where business can be incentivized and rewarded for creating value for nature and society alongside profitability. We made the game up, we can change the rules to create an economy that protects nature by 2030.

We work together to narrow the digital divide

The Internet today is growing at an incredible speed in ways that have enormously expanded people's work and living spaces. Cyberspace has become a new homeland for human beings, a place where all countries are getting increasingly interdependent, and a community of intertwined interests and shared future.

While digital technology increases the welfare of the general public, it will also lead to unequal development opportunities in different regions and different groups due to the imbalance of Internet development in different countries and the lack of skills of individual citizens.

Therefore, in order to get to my vision for 2030 that features inclusiveness and balanced development, we need to work together to narrow the digital divide.

First, we need to speed up building global Internet infrastructure that is accessible to all. Second, we need to promote inclusive development on a truly global scale. It is important to enhance Internet capacity in developing and underdeveloped countries to support the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Third, the protection of women, children, and other vulnerable groups should be strengthened in cyberspace.

Let us work together to adapt to the trends of the information age and build a community with a shared future in cyberspace.

Findings from the network of Global Future Councils also inform the Forum’s Transformation Maps – a publicly available, free-to-use strategic intelligence and visualization tool designed to promote understanding and solutions for the world’s greatest challenges.

Related topics:

Russia’s Ambitious Goal: Half a Million International Students by 2030 Amid Tensions

I n a bold move that appears to defy its growing international isolation, Russia aims to dramatically increase its international student population, setting a target of half a million by 2030. This initiative comes at a time when the country faces diplomatic estrangement following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Despite the geopolitical standoff, Russia’s allure as an education hub persists, with a notable uptick of 8% in the number of international students in 2022, totaling 351,500. This figure already surpasses the prior goal of 310,000 international students set for 2020. The decree underscoring this expansion, signed by President Vladimir Putin following his inauguration on May 7, underscores the country’s commitment to advancing its national development goals.

Putin’s decree, entitled “On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation until 2030 and for a Longer Term until 2036,” outlines plans to not only bolster the education sector but also addresses socio-economic and military operation issues.

The student body in Russian universities is diverse, with the largest contingents hailing from former Soviet states, Asia, and Africa. Kazakhstan leads with over 62,500 students. In a significant boost to prospective international students, Russia’s Ministry of Education has announced the increase of the international student quota from 17,000 to 30,000 places by 2023, enabling more individuals to study without the burden of tuition fees.

The popular fields of study attracting foreign students include medicine and engineering, reflecting Russia’s strengths in these domains. Institutions like the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia and Moscow State University are among the preferred choices for international scholars.

Acting Minister Valery Falkov states that “Russia is the sixth-largest destination for international students.” This statistic is a testament to Russia’s academic appeal, and the country appears to be leveraging this soft power to counterbalance the challenges it faces on the diplomatic front.

However, the ambitious plan isn’t without its challenges. A survey conducted last year revealed a troubling sentiment among Russian students, with one in three expressing a desire to leave the country, and many perceiving the nation’s situation as in crisis.

Yet, the strategy to attract more international students seems undeterred. Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Konstantin Mogilevsky, during a summit in St. Petersburg, noted that Russia had increased the number of Russian scholarships to 4,000 people since the last academic year.

Relevant articles:

– Putin Wants to Have Half a Million Int’l Students in Russian Universities by 2030 — Erudera , Erudera

– Putin wants number of foreign students in Russia to rise to 500,000 by 2030 , TASS

– Foreign Students In Russia Could Rise To 500,000 – OpEd , Eurasia Review

– Number of Int’l Students in Russia Increased in 2022 Despite Its Diplomatic Isolation Over Ukraine War — Erudera , Erudera