The rapid acceleration of generative AI and the “skills gap” has rendered traditional educational cycles obsolete. Current literature (OECD, 2023; UNESCO, 2024) highlights a critical tension between legacy institutional structures and the emerging post-digital reality. This special issue is timely as Higher Education faces a “triple pressure”: the demand for micro-credentials in a volatile labor market, the need for financial sustainability amidst shifting funding models, and the ethical imperative to democratize knowledge through Open Education. Recent global events (Dubai Declaration, UNESCO 2024) have shifted the focus from emergency remote teaching to long-term strategic foresight. By addressing AI-assisted complex thinking and organizational agility, this issue responds to the urgent societal need for “resilient literacies.” It bridges the gap between theoretical pedagogical innovation and pragmatic leadership strategies, providing the evidence-based framework required to navigate the complexity of the current socio-economic and environmental transition.
This special issue explores the systemic transformation of Higher Education through strategic foresight. It seeks original research on post-digital architectures, AI-driven leadership, and innovative financing models. We invite contributions that analyze micro-credentials, lifelong learning, and open knowledge to bridge the gap between academic ecosystems and evolving global labor markets.
- Reconfiguring learning systems in response to the demands of an evolving society: Complexity in social, economic, environmental and cultural changes
- Modelling new post-digital learning architectures: Technological challenges and opportunities for pedagogical innovation, openness, communication and organisational efficiency
- Reimagining financial strategies for Higher Education: Access policies, micro-financing and implications for teaching and assessment methods
- Transforming organisational culture in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Leadership strategies and training transformation
- Designing training for new labour ecosystems: Technology-enhanced micro-credentials, AI.
- Cultivating literacy for the future: Competencies and skills for lifelong learning (AI-assisted complex thinking, socio-emotional competencies, international competencies).
- Opening up knowledge: openness is redefining global collaboration by leveraging technologies and AI to remove educational barriers and democratise forward-thinking strategies in lifelong learning.
This special issue moves beyond isolated technological trends to offer a multidimensional strategic foresight of Higher Education. While existing literature often treats AI, micro-credentials, and financing in silos, this collection establishes a transdisciplinary synthesis. Its original contribution lies in defining the “Open Horizon”—a framework where post-digital architectures and AI-driven leadership converge to dismantle traditional academic boundaries. By integrating complexity science with organizational transformation, the issue provides a roadmap for reconfiguring learning systems against global socio-economic shifts. It introduces a novel perspective on financial-pedagogical synergy, arguing that micro-financing and micro-credentials are not just tools, but catalysts for a democratized, lifelong learning ecosystem. This issue fills a critical gap by shifting the discourse from “digital adoption” to “systemic resilience,” equipping leaders with the competencies (AI-assisted complex thinking) necessary to navigate the labor and educational ecosystems of the next decade.
This call invites us to address the social challenge of the growing digital and cognitive divide. By promoting “Open Knowledge” and “AI-assisted complex thinking,” it provides strategies to prevent educational exclusion in an increasingly automated world. The core impact lies in transforming Higher Education from a rigid silo into a fluid lifelong learning ecosystem that fosters social mobility and professional retraining. Ultimately, it empowers citizens with the socio-emotional and international competencies necessary to lead in a complex, globalized society.
List of Topic Areas
- Post-Digital Pedagogical Architectures: Exploring the convergence of AI, hybrid environments, open education and physical spaces to create seamless, flexible learning ecosystems that respond to social and cultural complexity.
- Strategic Leadership for AI-Driven Transformation: Investigating how organizational culture must evolve through leadership models that prioritize digital literacy, ethical AI integration, and agile governance in Higher Education.
- The Micro-Credential Revolution and Labor Alignment: Analyzing the role of technology-enhanced micro-credentials and AI-assisted skills mapping in bridging the gap between academic curricula and the demands of new labor ecosystems.
- Sustainable Financial Innovations for Access: Reimagining the economics of Higher Education through micro-financing, open education resources (OER), open science and scalable models that ensure equitable access and democratic lifelong learning.
- Future-Ready Literacies and Complex Thinking: Defining the competencies required for the next decade, focusing on the synergy between socio-emotional skills, international collaboration, and AI-augmented complex problem-solving.
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/lfet
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/oth
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.
Key Deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 01/03/2026
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/07/2026
