Overcoming Challenges and Boundaries Through the Innovation of University Learning and Teaching Practices

Innovation in university learning and teaching processes comes together with the interweaving of multiple social and cultural changes that have progressively called into question the structure of higher education systems (Trow 2007; Stes 2008, Stes et al, 2010; Mulryan-Kyne, 2010). Universities are being asked to increase the knowledge and skills of a population whose schooling rates are growing progressively and whose training needs are becoming more and more complex. Moreover, universities are also being called upon to respond to a constantly changing scenario. For the above-mentioned reasons, university curricula are increasingly incorporating issues related to citizenship (Owens et al, 2018; Aydin, 2014) and transversal skills (Wheat et al, 2018). According to this frame there are several localized strategic and crucial areas in which the awareness and networking of universities at an international level towards innovation of learning and teaching practices can generate a significative societal impact. In this paper we would like to concentrate on three examples based on the University of Bologna experience. Initial and in-service teachers training (from pre-school to secondary) is one of these pivotal areas. Among the societal challenges faced by education we now have to cope with the issue of training new citizenship skills for sustainable development in a society increasingly influenced by scientific and technological development. Public engagement, as well as science education, together with ethics, gender and governance, also require transversal attention and new research efforts. Furthermore, there are two strategic, crucial areas where universities can make a difference in supporting lifelong learning and fostering fairness, diversity and inclusion namely corporate education, with upskilling and reskilling of workers, and providing higher education to prisoners, reaffirming HEI aspirations to fully guarantee access to studies as an inalienable right of the human being.