Around the world, two phenomena have suddenly gained attention of political, economic and social leaders of our times. The first, of course, is the intensified, vocal, visible and powerful citizens’ movement—from Senegal, Thailand, India, Tunisia, Egypt, UK, Chile—everywhere. At the base of these movements are youth—young people from all strata and spaces of society. The message from these citizen movements is clear—the young citizens want to be engaged in the democratic development of their societies and communities.

The second phenomena is the increasing—rapidly increasing—demand for post-secondary education in all its myriad dimensions, forms and contents. Millions of aspirants are queuing up for enrolment, only constraints being cost, quality and delivery. Educational administrators, planners and policy-makers are yet to figure out how to respond to this surge and diversity of demands from all societies.