The launching conference of the new Steering Committee for Higher Education and Research (CDESR) project on “The University between Humanism and Market: Redefining its Values and Functions for the 21st Century” will be held on 20-21 November 2007 in Strasbourg. Its title is “New Challenges to European Higher Education – Managing the Complexities of a Globalized Society”.

For two days high-level policy makers in higher education will gather to answer questions and address issues such as:

• What are the challenges to societal sustainability modern societies and individuals have to cope with?
• What is the contribution of higher education to societal sustainability and what should it look like?
• What kind of challenges does higher education face in modern societies? How does it cope with them?
• What kind of knowledge/values does it require to enable people to take action in modern societies, at individual level and at the level of societies?
• How should higher education institutions proceed in the transmission of these forms of knowledge?