12. Visioning futures of higher education for the common good

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is not to use the visioning process to produce accurate descriptions of the future, but to help conjure up images of a desirable higher education system. This was done by engaging in the phases of the visioning process that took participants through the processes of identifying the problem, recognising the past successes, exploring the wishes of the future and constructing the vision of the future for higher education in 2050. The different phases of the visioning process provided a systematic way of coming up with common good as a visionary lens. Through this process, the values of common good were used to provide a direction to move higher education towards being accessible, inclusive, and affordable to fulfil its social justice mandate. Therefore, higher education needs to be reengineered to adapt to the good of the community it serves.