In many countries, "traditional" students will soon be a numerical minority
on campus. The demands of the knowledge society as well as social and
demographic shifts continue to have far-reaching effects on the composition
of the student body with more and more entrants (or re-entrants) well past
the age of eighteen to twenty-four. In order to serve an increasingly broad
and diverse spectrum of the population, higher education institutions will
have to adjust their academic programs and organizational structures and
become more "permeable." This session will convene practitioners and
policy-makers from around the world to explore the trends in shifting
student populations, analyze policies and models to respond to these
trends, and evaluate the challenges and opportunities that higher education
faces in the light of this development.