HEI in the context of Global Citizenship

The last decades have seen an expansion of the application of Quality Systems in the service sectors and in the public service sectors, including in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Taking into account the fact that educational institutions are the incubators of future societies, it is critical to understand the role played by Quality Systems in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of such sector. HEI replicate or else reject and innovate the basic settings of each society. HEI both repeat and strengthen the social norms, the social conventions and the belief systems of each society or else they renovate and create new operational modes of existence. Global change happens as a result of the cumulative effect of such partial changes. In each historical era it is possible to identify the building blocks and the rising tensions that, sooner or later, will lead to change. Contemporary societies are under pressure from increased levels of civic consciousness in both the developed and the less developed worlds. A fundamental aspect of this pressure is related to the transition to a postcarbon economy and to the social modes of organisation that are necessary to be in place for such change to take place. The complexity, transversal and transdisciplinary nature of these changes is already present in present organisational contexts and Quality Systems are already sensitive to such impacts. However, the need for awareness rising and the need to clarify alternative courses of action are crucial factors in creating much needed resilience at organisational level. In economic terms, new modes of organisation of both production and consumption will be needed, and are indeed already being designed and tested. Industry 4.0, Makerspaces and Fablabs, MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses, or quantum computing, are examples of such changes. The role of the present paper is to situate such discussion as a critical aspect of present and future Quality Systems. Indeed, as Quality Systems have moved into HEI, the horizon of possibilities and the potential social impact of such interventions have been extended. The greater the capacity to name and to elaborate such potential, the greater its power to betransformed into concrete organisational actions, within both the HEI sectors and
in society as a whole.

Quality management systems; Higher education institutions;
Industry 4.0; Makerspaces and Fablabs; MOOCs; Quantum computing