Pavel Gregorić is quite the Renaissance man. His areas of interest include ancient and early modern philosophy, astronomy, the history and philosophy of science, and the philosophy of the mind and consciousness. He writes, lectures, attends scientific conferences, and holds public presentations on scientific, religious and educational topics. At work, he tries to participate in managing the university, while at home he tries to participate in the raising of his two young children – both with partial success. He earned his graduate degree in philosophy and comparative literature at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Philosophy, his master’s and doctorate at Oxford University, and conducted further studies in Budapest, Berlin and Berkeley. Since 2011 he works on Croatian studies at the University of Zagreb, where he serves as Vice-Dean for International Cooperation. Currently, he is engrossed by two questions concerning the educational system: What needs to be done so that schools and universities become institutes of the 21st century? What does the 21st century need to do for its schools and universities?

Round table: Creativity in higher education

IT is a field that  changes from year to year. It’s extremely hard to say what our work, projects, tools and processes will look like in a fewyears, let alone five. We are constantly learning, adapting, and finding creative solutions not only for daily problems,  but strategic and long-term ones as well. Because of this situation, creativity is ever more so important in every workplace, regardless of its purpose or responsibility. The question is: can someone learn to be creative?

The education system readies young adults for the workplace on a largescale. Interaction between academic institutions and the workplace is nowmore important than ever before, so that people entering the workforce are ready to face the challenges that face both them and their future companies. Their work habits, attitudes, ability to work in a team, regardfor authority, definition of success, desire to take responsibility of their own knowledge, and also creativity are shaped across the fifteen or more years of their education. If the objective of the education system is to usher in a new generation of creative and proactive individuals, in what ways is that system supposed function? What is being done well, and what changes are welcome, or even necessary?

In this round table discussion, we will give our guests a picture of the present and potential future creativity within higher education and try toagree how academics and industry can together prepare a new generation for the challenges that lay ahead.