The Future of Higher Education, Readiness for the Open Innovation Paradigm

The open innovation (OI) paradigm has significantly impacted higher education, especially within the context of the global networks of societies. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred innovation, creating online educational communities and transforming the academic approach. While OI, the movement towards online learning, and the industry-academia cooperation for a better grounding in labor market demands have been discussed in previous studies, this quantitative study furthers the understanding of the preparedness and efficiency of the education system for the new labor market. This study investigates the potential correlation between the education system and various socio-economic indicators, such as education expenditure, mobility opportunities, digital inclusion, employment, and urbanization. The regression analysis was conducted on the dataset obtained from the open-access EUROSTAT database.