Abstract:

Development of any component of national economy, particularly such an important one as the system of education is not purely an economic phenomenon but rather a multidimensional process involving reorganization and reorientation of entire economic and social system.
Development can be considered both as a result and process of enlarging or deepening of the current state, level or situation. Development in the system of education is considered to be aimed at improving the quality of human lives through three equally important aspects (Todaro & Smith, 2009) including –
1. Raising peoples’ living levels, i.e. income and consumption, levels of food quality and amount, medical services, education through relevant growth processes;
2. Creating conditions conducive to the growth of peoples’ self-esteem through the establishment of social, political and economic systems and institutions, which promote human dignity and respect;
3. Increasing peoples’ freedom to choose by enlarging the range of their choice variables, e.g. varieties of goods and services.
Today, the development of higher schools as research centres is widely recognized, but the current environment, both European and global, requires their multidimensional development as global institutions, i.e. durable and enduring conveners, assemblers of talent, and unmatched idea factories (Crow, 2014), generators of creativity and problem-solving and advancers of societal and economic well-being.
To develop in this multidimensional perspective, higher schools must adapt and innovate, embrace their cultural, socioeconomic and physical setting, focus on the individual, and become effective partners for global development (ibid.).
In the economically developed countries, the very notion of success has altered recently – according to Crow, in the new environment successful universities will be those capable of being nimble, anticipatory, imaginative and reactive. We share this opinion but with a correction – we believe that being reactive is a feature of the past; today and particularly tomorrow universities must be proactive. And indeed, universities must be socially embedded, thereby fostering development through direct engagement and they must be willing to take risks to become even greater forces of societal transformation.
Today the roles and functions of higher schools resemble those of Medieval Universities that used to be the centres of both personal and national development, while the contemporary higher schools are viewed upon as centres of multinational and international development, generators of opportunities for anyone willing to develop and/or overcome the initial constraints.
The contemporary higher schools are expected to be cornerstones for regional and global sustainable development – the kind of development that is likely to achieve lasting satisfaction of human needs and improvement of the quality of life and encompasses global involvement and concern including help for the very poorest, the idea of self-reliant development, cost effective development, important issues of health control, appropriate technologies, food self-reliance, clean water and shelter for all, as well as people centered activities.
The higher schools of today are to develop in all aspects so that they could become boosters for the development of both our present global knowledge economy and future global creative economy – being creative enterprises, developers of creative people, creative businesses, creative industries, and creative cities or even creative countries.

Keywords:

Changing global environment, global institutions of higher education, knowledge and creative economy.