The past year has brought changes to higher education. It has brought changes to our thinking about higher education. In a year of pandemic isolation that has affected students and staff alike, COVID-19 has reminded us of the importance of place and social interaction for learning to take place. Educators and students have adapted to new technologies. Students have gone through a year of studying from home, without the support that social contact and campus life offers. Education technologies at our disposal have been better understood by some than others. How we have chosen them and combined them has been discussed only to a limited extent. How will we bend campus and virtual media in the future, in a horizon of mutual expectation and understanding shared by students, lectures and managerial staff alike?

Now towards the end of 2021 we are all reflecting on what permanent changes we might be seeing in higher education? There is talk of returning to “normal” and references to “the new normal”. There is also the fact that COVID-19 is far from over, the pandemic on the rise in many countries and the availability of vaccination extremely uneven.

What reflections do we make in light of this, concerning higher education´s digital future? Will we see a return to an old “normal”? Explore a deeper sense of virtual spaces and forms of immersion? New combinations? Please join us at the 11th World Learning Summit to explore research, teaching and learning practices, engaging with world thought leaders.

WLS 2021 is a live recorded digital event, video editions and summit transcripts available to registered attendees.