“The world will never be the same again.” This is perhaps the least hazardous prediction one can make about the consequence of the COVID-19 crisis. This crisis will surely change all societal institutions, not just the healthcare sector. The precise nature of that change is, at this time, unknowable. The safe prediction that the world will change leaves open the form and direction this change will take. But it cannot and should not be left unguided, subject to those seeking to re-establish old systems of power. We contend that higher education must play a major role in helping to shape the post-COVID-19 world and do so by reshaping higher education itself.

In October 2018 the Council of Europe and the Anchor Institutions Task Force organized a conference at Dublin City University on the local mission of higher education. The conference gave rise to a book that has just been published by Glasnevin Publishers. Edited by Sjur Bergan (Council of Europe), Ira Harkavy (Anchor Institution Task Force) and Ronaldo Munch (Dublin City University), the book discusses the local mission of higher education as a European challenge, provides examples of how eight European universities work with their local communities, and also includes two articles offering a South African and a global perspective, respectively.