Major challenges for university, Riordan

(ANSA) - Udine, June 29 - The president and vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, Professor Colin Riordan, said Thursday that higher education is confronted with great challenges in a rapidly evolving society, with major changes in technology and the political landscape. The academic, who is taking part in the round table focusing on the theme of global citizenship, expressed the hope that universities will be able to share experiences in order to help students deal with a world that will be extremely different in just a few years from now. According to Riordan, it is necessary to educate students to be global citizens. The academic said he has implemented a strategy at Cardiff University to ensure that all students are granted the possibility of studying abroad, which he said is quite rare in Great Britain. Cardiff, he said, is trying to help students become global citizens, citing key issues like sustainability, politics, finance and individual responsibility. The professor also spoke about Brexit, calling it a great complication for British universities as they are closely connected with the European higher education system and EU programs. He said academic cooperation networks, the ability to attract the best researchers and scientists and to ensure student mobility were at stake more than funding. Riordan added that the great fracture produced by Brexit in British society was an even greater issue that higher education needed to confront in Britain.