It must respond to the challenges faced by society or lose relevance

More than 2,000 leaders and innovators in the field of education from around the world gathered at the annual WISE Summit in Qatar last week. They were asked in the online survey before the event began that considers higher education is essential for economic progress in the 21st century. More than 60% answered no.

This is a group deeply committed to what one speaker, Ricardo Selmer, CEO of SEMCO Partners and founder of Ralston-Selmer in Brazil, is described as "transformational power of education" and especially its ability to change lives marginalized groups.

This year's winner of the annual prize for WISE Dr. Sabena Jacobi. It was almost single-handedly transformed the lives of thousands of women in the most difficult circumstances in Afghanistan through education. Why then are so many of these pioneers and innovators show such skepticism when it comes to higher education?

The first reason could be the face of difficulties higher education, especially in a region like the Middle East, in determining what is in the 21st century. Panel session of the summit on the topic "The Future of Higher Education" feature, among others, former Higher Education Coordinator at the World Bank, Dr. Jamal Salami, the famous American journalist Jeffrey Selling.

While all members of the committee made a valuable contribution, there was little consensus on how to balance the desire for higher education to prepare to face the citizens and solving global challenges in the 21st century compared with the need to allow students to be employable.

Graduate unemployment is too high, especially in the Middle East. This is causing real damage to the access and equity arguments. The argument citizenship commands great sympathy, but it is not clear how to combine it with mechanisms to bring these levels of unemployment.

The meeting focused primarily on inequality in primary and secondary education. Her Highness Sheikh Moa bent Nasser said in plenary that the opening of the 60 million children in the world will not complete primary school and this number is growing with this refugee crisis.

Inevitably, in the face of this challenge, access to higher education like the second row attention. But besides ways to expand higher education and constructed ceiling is paid to the impact of participation in primary / secondary education on the lives of children in the developing world.

This argument has been missing from the debate about the primary / secondary education and inequalities and solutions. WISE overview of education in 2015, conducted among 1550 education experts from around the world in the months preceding the summit, called for joint solutions to "the failure of education to keep pace with changing jobs." However, the cooperation offered participating schools and jobs, not indicative universities.

Finally, perhaps the most important message coming from the summit was the need to address the impact of conflict. We are currently experiencing the highest sense of displacement after World War II, with more than 60 million people displaced from their homes. Half of them are young people, and only 1% is going to higher education. Action is underway to engage higher education on this issue.