Globalization, digitalization, and a rapid technological development of many areas of life and society, bring humanity to another level of development. Changes in the educational organizations are inevitable and the university must meet new requirements in a new paradigm (Gafurov et al., 2020).

This Research Topic “Education and Innovative Perspectives in Higher Education” invited the submission of articles on: globalization effects; impact of education on development and new challenges in the higher education area; generic, soft, and transversal skills and global citizenship education; entrepreneurship education and innovation in educational institutions; new pedagogical and didactic developments, including learning, assessment and teaching methodologies and models, as active learning and flipped classroom; and technological issues in education, as distance education, technology-enhanced learning, technological skills, and digital platforms.

This edition had 70 submissions of which 23 articles were accepted for publication by 74 authors from different countries, including 6 systematic review, 15 original research, 1 conceptual analysis article, and 1 brief research report, as shown in Table 1.

The publications involved a multiplicity of ideas and perspectives on innovative issues in higher education, with five main themes being particularly evident: issues related to the quality of education; the development of transversal competences by students that can be framed within education for global citizenship; issues related to technologies and innovation; new teaching, assessment and learning methodologies; and general academic issues.

Therefore, this Research Topic addresses theoretical, conceptual, and methodological aspects and topics, including issues related to the quality of education and learning (Ikramand and Kenayathulla; Liu et al.). It also involved studies into the development of skills (Galindo-Domínguez et al.; Serrão et al.; Silva and Palaré), including the global citizenship (Simon et al.) and entrepreneurial questions (Silveyra-León et al.; Tian). Most of the articles in this Research Topic focus on learning, teaching models and methodologies associated with technologies in higher education (see articles by: Alismaiel et al.; Atout and Nalubega; Ding and Li; Mahmud and Wong; Zakaria et al.), covering an active learning experience in didactic stations (Navarro-Durán et al.), an analysis of the flipped classroom pedagogical model (Arco et al.), a study on service-learning (Pinto and Costa-Ramalho), and experiences of interprofessional learning (Berger-Estilita et al.), with academic language demands (Russell et al.), and an exam villa for exam preparation at university (Reschke et al.). Also addressed general issues related to reputation (Mateus and Acosta), doctoral graduate attributes (Senekal et al.), academic integration (Abdul-Raham et al.), and learning environment (Solovieva et al.).

In this sense, innovative perspectives on teaching and learning are needed in higher education (Rodrigues, 2023a) and new models of training and instructional methods must be thought of (Rodrigues, 2020; Rodrigues and Alonso, 2022). Teaching contents and techniques should be structured in line with the learners 'objectives, students' needs, and professional and soft skills required by the fourth industrial revolution (Atiku and Boateng, 2020) and should be supported by an innovative technology-enhanced pedagogy (Blau et al., 2020). Issues and challenges such as entrepreneurship education, development, and soft and technological skills should be considered (Fayolle, 2013; Liñán and Fernández-Serrano, 2014; Núñez, 2016; Rodrigues et al., 2021).

In addition to implementing entrepreneurship programmes and analyzing the most recommended instructional methods for developing transversal skills (Rodrigues, 2023b), it is essential to study the entrepreneurship education based on an experiential learning approach, namely through effective practices with technology-based simulation gaming (Yasin and Hafeez, 2018). The future of entrepreneurship education will have to involve a comprehensive theoretical and practical discourse for the innovation of pedagogies with the integration of technology. These will increase student motivation and engagement by making learning more interesting and interactive, with student-centered approaches such as the flipped classroom and gamification activities, involving students in real-life scenarios such as “the development of university-based business” (Hyams-Sesseki and Yasin, 2022, p. 258).

Higher education institutions can play an important role in the development of global citizenship education for young adults and even in lifelong learning (Massaro, 2022; Saperstein, 2023), either by integrating it into curricula or by creating their own programmes (Ennals et al., 2009; Maire, 2023). At the same time, they can make a strong contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 4 on Quality Education (Fang et al., 2023; Ludvik et al., 2023).

The European Union study on innovation in higher education (Brennan et al., 2014) concluded that there are three main sets of challenges to enhance innovation in higher education: “(i) challenges from globalization; (ii) challenges from the changing supply and demand for higher education; and (iii) challenges from changes in higher education funding.” (p. 81), which require various innovative practices to tackle, build on an interplay between national/regional and institutional factors, and between bottom-up and top-down approaches to innovation. Policy recommendations for consideration encompass the innovation in teaching and learning, the improvement of student performance through technology, and the consideration of globalization and multi-campus universities.

Thus, this Research Topic is justified to strengthen the current state of international research on new perspectives and reflections regarding the role of higher education in society and how it can contribute to increase the Quality of Education as one of the Sustainable Development Goals. This topic also contributes to discussions on the importance of the changes needed in teaching, assessment and learning processes in higher education, in the context of emerging technology-based environments.

Taken as a whole, the selected articles could serve as a reference for articulating future directions in research and contributing to better practices in the higher education landscape. They also highlight new perspectives for future research, particularly in entrepreneurship and global citizenship education, and new forms of learning, anticipating the potential and challenges of new digital tools and technologies in education.

Without forgetting the fundamental mission of higher education as the guardian of scientific knowledge, new perspectives on innovation are relevant in order to continue to ensure its impartiality, credibility, ethics, and democratic culture.