Innovating In An Age Of Uncertainty

Faster and more wide-ranging innovation is often urged as the key to solving the various challenges that currently face humankind, from climate change to income inequality. This article looks at a complex example of innovation, the portability ofqualifications proposed in Groningen Declaration, and reviews some of the politi- cal and social obstacles that might slow down or prevent the implementation of this idea.

We first explain the Groningen Declaration in simple terms and then examine vari- ous issues that stakeholders, such as students, universities, employers and gov- ernments, would want it to address. Then we shall gather these various issues into three broad categories: privacy, trust and student mobility – and argue that each of them poses special problems at the current time.

Our aim is not to discourage innovation, but to remind those pushing new ideas that the obstacles to their adoption may often seem to have little direct relation to the idea itself.