Abstract:

"According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself." (Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4.)

In the current challenging times when everything is put on hold, the economy is finding itself in crisis, businesses go bankrupt, people all over the world went through the uncertainty caused for the arising fear for their health, their life, their families, a lot of companies and universities were forced to completely change their work model from in office to home office, from physical presence to digital work model. The world as we knew it has drastically changed, thus that abrupt change was not caused by war, but a virus that has spread all over the world and has affected everybody's life. The life has stopped for almost a year, starting December 2019, as the pandemic went global and the following 2020 was rather difficult for all areas including education and training, higher education, international cooperation, etc. The Universities had to ensure online educational possibilities and to switch to digital learning as soon as possible in order to continue the educational process. All that in extremely difficult times, with insufficient resources (on the global scale).

The topic about ensuring quality education and training in contemporary consumer oriented world has been wildly discussed. It is quite clear that new innovative models for education and training are quite necessary. The Role of the universities as centers of excellence oriented to bringing up young people holding the necessary knowledge, skills and competences to contribute to the contemporary information society and develop new ideas in the globalizing world, is gradually changing. As we all can see from the current situation, the world needs well educated, adaptable leaders in order to solve its pending problems. Thus, new leadership models, based on sustainable time proved values along with adaptability to new situations and the paradigm of the current social isolation should be in the focus of the educational institutions.

The current paper is a research aimed to provide logical base for development of ideas corresponding to the challenges in education based on some of the new trends and experiences, best practices and issues during the pandemic.

Keywords:

Leadership model, sustainable values, quality education, adaptability, digital environment, COVID-19.