The landscape of global higher education in the 21^st century is changing rapidly in response to various geopolitical or economical transformations and shifting remarkably from the physical world to a more digitally-based world in light of the changes due to Covid-19.  This book includes eight chapters and highlights crucial aspects and key challenges for the higher education operating environment across different global regions.

Globalisation and internationalisation require higher education institutions to adapt to changes so that they can respond better to an increasingly competitive environment.  In the first chapter, Keith M. Wallace discusses eight best practices in updating or creating and establishing a global communication strategy for higher education institutions involved in the international branch campus expansion at both, macro and micro levels. Branching Out: Establishing a Global Communication Strategy for a Foreign Branch Campus provides insights into the opportunities for organizational expatriate assignments and employee global mindset development that can lay a foundation for long-term strategic success with a now globally engaged institution.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented multi-level global challenge.  In many regions and countries, the new challenges faced by higher education institutions are interwoven into existing socioeconomic and cultural conditions. The second chapter on the Implications for the Management of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions Beyond Covid-19 by Ron Ryan Sookram considers the impact of university rankings and the concept of ‘world-class universities’ on the institutions and in academic careers, and the implications for regional university autonomy and development.  In the following chapter on The Limits of Humanism in Mexican Public Universities: Preliminary Lessons from COVID-19 the authors, Ricardo Lindquist Sánchez and Rodolfo García Galván, characterise the preliminary effects of the pandemic on Mexican public universities with a special interest in inquiring about the university authorities’ response to the needs of students and teachers, within the educational humanism framework. A balanced approach is followed between the successes and mistakes in the university response and the level of attachment to the humanist commitment promoted in the discourse.

New approaches to teaching and learning have been accelerated by the pandemic and future trends for online teaching and eLearning are already emerging. The fourth chapter on The e-learning intercultural competencies boost by Fray Martin Martínez and Rafael Alberto Méndez-Romero, reveals the eLearning strategies for the internationalization of the curriculum that provide tools for comprehensive and inclusive education and develop skills formally recognized and validated in international programs. The technology that transforms teaching and learning practices into eLearning scenarios opens us up to the world and connects students from other cultures. Fatima S. Kabir’s fifth chapter on the Use of Virtual Learning Environment for Sustainable Distance Education in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects tackles the theoretical construct of technology-enhanced learning terminology and discusses the challenges of using e-learning or virtual learning environment in five selected accredited distance learning centres in Nigeria. Recommendations are made on the use of such technologies for distance education delivery in Nigeria and to prepare for a paradigm shift in educational delivery being witnessed during the current Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The pandemic has also challenged the sustainability of the programmes and practices in higher education but also given the possibility to be innovative and to re-think its present and future. The sixth chapter entitled From Entrepreneurship to Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Why must we care? What must we do? by Ratna Lindawati Lubis aims to inspire universities in Indonesia to take action and support them through their research, learning, teaching, and community services by providing recommendations as a result of the implementation of a newly developed 6-credit course, which may lead to promote awareness about SDGs. The aim of the study on Teaching Informatics without Personal Computers in Higher Education by Jens Nothacker is to establish the advantages and disadvantages of a new teaching approach with a mobile teaching suitcase for computer science teaching when is used to teach the digital content of the 21st-century curricula. The final chapter in the book by Miriam N. Kyule is a review of recent academic literature on the student and school capacity factors influencing student performance in Agriculture in secondary schools in Kenia, possible intervention measures for improved performance and the challenges faces within the Agricultural Higher Education.