Preparing graduates for a changing economy

The skills agenda remains an important factor for universities and students. Where have those skills changed and how is your university leading the conversation?

The concept of skills has undergone a significant transformation. Graduates are no longer expected to possess disciplinary knowledge alone. They must also be able to apply that knowledge in rapidly changing environments, engage effectively with technology, analyse problems, make decisions and continue learning throughout their lives.

We believe that the most important shift is from skills linked to a specific job toward the development of more flexible and sustainable capabilities. With artificial intelligence, automation and digital transformation rapidly reshaping the nature of work, the role of the university is no longer simply to prepare students for their first job, but to prepare them for a career path that may evolve repeatedly over time.

For this reason, digital skills, data analysis and artificial intelligence have become essential across most disciplines. At the same time, we believe that the growing presence of technology increases, rather than reduces, the importance of human skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communication, teamwork, leadership and problem-solving. Interdisciplinary skills are also becoming increasingly important, because challenges in areas such as health, energy, sustainability, mining and the digital economy cannot be addressed from the perspective of a single discipline. At Northern Border University, we are working to embed these skills into programme design and the wider learning experience, while expanding applied learning, project-based learning, training opportunities and stronger links between students and real-world working environments.

We also believe that identifying future skills should take place in partnership with government, industry, the private sector and employers, and that the role of the university should extend beyond traditional degree education to include lifelong learning and reskilling. Ultimately, our goal is not simply to graduate a student who knows more, but to graduate someone who can learn, analyse, innovate, adapt and create value

What is a challenge in your region that universities alone cannot solve, and what are the key partnership areas that can?

One of the major challenges in our region is how to translate significant economic and development potential into sustainable opportunities for people and communities. This is an issue that universities cannot address alone, because it intersects with the economy, the labour market, industry, public policy and innovation.

In the Northern Borders Region, there are important opportunities in sectors such as mining, renewable energy and supply chains. However, fully benefiting from these opportunities depends not only on the availability of resources or investment, but also on qualified human capital, applied scientific research, a strong innovation environment, and an ecosystem that connects knowledge with the economy.

For this reason, we do not see the university as an institution operating only within the boundaries of its campus, but as part of a broader development ecosystem. The university generates knowledge, builds skills and supports innovation, but it needs partners who can help transform this knowledge into applications, investments and employment opportunities.

Partnership with the government sector is essential for aligning research and education with development priorities. Partnership with the private sector and industry is equally important for programme development, training, applied research and technology transfer.

International partnerships also play an important role in knowledge transfer, capacity building, and the development of research and innovation. At the same time, engagement with the local community ensures that the solutions we develop are grounded in genuine needs.

In our view, the challenge is not so much a lack of knowledge as it is the need to connect those who generate knowledge with those who apply it, finance it and shape the policies associated with it.

For this reason, Northern Border University is moving toward strengthening the model of the university as a development partner: a university that brings together government, industry, society and academic institutions around shared challenges, and transforms partnerships from a supporting activity into a core part of its institutional model.

Where are the greatest opportunities for Arab region universities and how can institutions take advantage of them?

We believe that universities in the Arab region are facing a historic opportunity to redefine their role. The region is experiencing major economic, technological and demographic transformations, while at the same time possessing significant human capital, investment, national ambitions and unprecedented development projects.

One of the greatest opportunities lies in the transition toward a knowledge-based economy. Economic diversification and investment in technology and innovation place universities in a central position in developing human capital and producing knowledge.

However, taking advantage of these opportunities requires universities to move from responding to change to actively shaping it. Institutions need to anticipate future needs and build programmes, skills and research capabilities before emerging trends become gaps.

Artificial intelligence and data science represent a major opportunity, not only in terms of adoption, but also in building research and applied capabilities in areas such as health, energy, education, mining and smart cities.

The region also has significant opportunities in energy, sustainability and natural resources. These are areas in which Arab universities can develop solutions that create both local and global value.

We also see a major opportunity to strengthen collaboration among Arab universities through research networks, centres of excellence and joint projects, alongside international partnerships that focus on knowledge transfer and capacity building rather than academic exchange alone.

To take full advantage of these opportunities, universities need greater flexibility in developing their programmes, more diverse learning pathways, and stronger links with the economy and society.

The greatest opportunity for Arab universities, therefore, is to become active partners in shaping the future of the region, rather than institutions that respond to that future only after it has already arrived.

If you could set the direction for all of higher education, toward which one area would you direct the sector?

If we could identify one direction for higher education, we would direct it toward moving beyond a focus on knowledge alone and toward the creation of value and impact.

Universities will always remain institutions for producing and transferring knowledge. However, the world now expects more from them: to transform knowledge into human capabilities, research into solutions, and innovation into economic and social value. The question should therefore not only be: How many students do we educate? or How many research papers do we publish? It should also be: What impact are we creating?

What has changed in the life of the student as a result of their university experience? What problems has scientific research helped to solve? And what value has the university added to the economy and society? This requires a more flexible model of education, one that places greater emphasis on lifelong learning, critical thinking, problem-solving and working across disciplines.

It also requires us to redesign education in the age of artificial intelligence. When access to knowledge becomes easier and more widely available, the value of the university increasingly lies in teaching students how to ask the right questions, how to analyse, how to verify information and how to innovate. At the same time, universities need to become more deeply integrated with government, industry and society, so that real-world challenges enter the university and solutions and innovations emerge from it.

We should also broaden our understanding of university success. In addition to research performance and rankings, success should include the competitiveness of graduates, the ability to translate knowledge into applications, and the creation of measurable economic and social impact.