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'Futures' (images of the future) are often devised at the level of a single university or at a national level for the overall higher education system. However, the bulk of trends and driving forces shaping universities' future are international in their nature and universities operate in broader socio-economic and S&T systems. Hence, futures devised in a multi-level structure would better assist decision-makers and stakeholders. This approach is a demanding one in several respects, but offers significant advantages: (i) the potential changes in the social, economic and S&T systems, in which universities are embedded, as well as their impacts on higher education can be considered systematically; (ii) the substantial diversity of higher education systems and individual universities can be taken into account; and (iii) the likely impacts of various policy options can also be analysed.

"Beautiful, and a little disturbing.."  Radiohead, Dead Air Space "These powerful images prompt us to consider everything that is at stake - the things we value, the things we take for granted - and call us to work towards a very different future."  Yvo de Boer, KPMG, Special Global Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainabilit

"In his classic novel "Invisible Cities," Italo Calvino envisioned a building, in a city called Fedora, containing a series of small globes. The visitor peering into each would see a small city, a model of a different Fedora. "These are the forms the city could have taken," wrote Calvino, "if for one reason or another, it had not become what we see today." In the real world, one can stand on a street in Manhattan and look into one's iPhone, where the app "Museum of the Phantom City: Other Futures" reveals the New York that might have been: from the fantastic (Buckminster Fuller's projected Midtown-covering dome) to the nearly realized (Diller and Scofidio's Eyebeam Museum)."