A few months ago, Lucio Chiquito, an engineer from Medellín, made the news after reading his doctoral thesis, at the age of 144, at the University of Manchester. An achievement that invites us to reflect on how longevity and the progressive implementation of the learning society are transforming our lives and, consequently, how these changes affect the functions that have been attributed to universities throughout the 20th century, while at the same time outlining the challenges they must face in the 21st century. What seems difficult to refute is that those communities that do not have competent and committed institutions dedicated to facilitating access to knowledge for all people, as well as to the critical creation of open scientific and artistic knowledge, are condemned to moral poverty and the exclusion of a significant part of their population. The cost of passivity is unaffordable1. Governments and universities are faced with the challenge of determining the role of university systems in the achievement of a social and democratic state based on the rule of law, inherent to the 21st century, within the framework of the construction of what we may well call the learning society.

In the period following the end of the Second World War, the Western university made a decisive contribution to the period of the greatest economic growth in the history of humanity, and it did so by undertaking profound changes in its role. The democratisation of access to training for young professionals and the promotion of technological innovation in business meant revolutionary changes at that time, which are still contested today, but which acted as determining factors in the social and economic progress of the period. 2 This scenario, typical of developmentalism, has become obsolete today, being overwhelmed both ideologically and by the vital changes that have taken place over the last few decades. Lifelong learning, regardless of age, has become a necessary condition for achieving full citizenship and employability in practically any profession. So too is the fight against ignorance, often provoked, which leads us to the obligation to have public and local research centres capable of sharing what science knows, but above all, what we really ignore and what we want to know.

This change of references takes place in a civilisation in which, in the words of Joaquín Rodríguez, expressed through the pages of his book "La furia de la lectura", "once again needs us to safeguard the human condition and dignity above all else" A society whose future has been limited by the absence of limits, which favours the emergence of different visions of the world and diverse practices, related to the search for an ecologically responsible and socially just reality.

Together with the emergence of new publics and the urgency of technological and academic sovereignty, the role of the University in the 20th century is also being questioned by other external factors such as the progressive loss of control of qualifications for professional practice, the liberalisation and globalisation of the training market, driven both by transnational universities and technological companies, and the privatisation of knowledge. All of these circumstances severely question the relevance of universities in future learning ecosystems.

The promotion of the learning society requires public policies that structure and align university systems around social demands. Policies that shape the "Right to the University", understood as a collective purpose rather than a subjective right. A right to a university for all for a society of lifelong learners.

Demographic changes

A child born today in an OECD country has more than a 50% chance of living to 105 years of age, whereas a child born more than a century ago had less than a 1% chance of living to that age3 . Longevity cannot be understood as the simple sum of years. Longevity changes our relationship to existence, and therefore to study and learning. The possibility of reaching much older ages than we are socially accustomed to forces us to structure life in a completely different way to that of previous generations. Science and social progress have transformed age into an indicator from which we cannot automatically deduce a lifestyle or a way of being. This affects not only those approaching the end of their lives, but all people. Age is no longer the variable that defines the way we live. 4As Pascal Bruckner points out in his book "Philosophy of Longevity", "The will to learn is a sign of freshness of spirit. Initiation will last until the grave. We can accumulate the joy of teaching and the joy of being taught, of receiving and giving lessons, of being the mouth that teaches and the mouth that asks, in perfect reciprocity. We still have enough time to open up to the world again and to return to knowledge." As long as there is the opportunity to learn together, life retains its meaning.

Maintaining or regaining social and occupational activity means eliminating the view of older people as parasites who must give way to younger people. Never before has it been so important for interpreting and acting on the world that the generations intertwine through friendship and common interests. Gratton, Lynday Scott, Andrewin "The 100-year life Living and working in an age of longevity" argue that we are facing a new era of multigenerational hybridisation. "Schools, colleges and universities could create spaces where young people, adults and older people from different walks of life can get to know each other well enough to build mutual respect, develop cooperative relationships and rekindle the fuse of caring. In an intergenerational learning space, the boundaries between education and learning and educational exceptionality around authority and tradition, raised by Hannah Arent, in her famous article "The Crisis of Education'"More also the world needs protection from being swept away by the onslaught that descends on it with each new generation", take on a new perspective.

Long gone are the admonitions of Nicholas Negroponte and his imaginary "digital natives" when he warned us, in 1995, in his book "The Digital Man", "The important thing will no longer be to belong to a particular social class, race or economic class, but to the right generation. The rich are now the young, and the poor the old". In all life situations there is room for learning in which hope is a shared heritage.

Towards the learning society

"The desire to learn is not only the distinguishing feature of our species, but also what gives value and meaning to our particular experience. We are challenged by everything as we pass through this world. The cultivation of curiosity is the first and last purpose of education, because a full life means a life of continuous learning". Through this statement, Santiago Beruete, in his book "Aprendívoros", exhorts us to become aware of the extent to which curiosity and learning are linked to the human condition, and concludes that "In order to stay sane and keep the will to live, or in other words, to continue learning, human beings need to feel necessary, authentic and united with their fellow human beings". The learning society maximises the learning status of individuals and organisations in order to recognise ourselves as lifelong learners in an uncertain and fast-paced world.5

The idea of conceiving education not for life, but throughout life, however disruptive it may seem to us, is rooted in the ideals of the Enlightenment. Thus, Nicolas Condorcet claims the obligation to "enlighten men in order to make them citizens" and to do so in accordance with the demands of the time. In his "Pedagogical Writings", Condorcet argued that, "Instruction should embrace all ages, that there is no age in which it is not useful and possible to learn, and that this second instruction is all the more necessary, the narrower the limits that have enclosed instruction in childhood".

Regardless of age, today more than ever, it is the desire to learn, together with the ability to think creatively, that gives us the opportunity to enjoy a decent life and to find quality employment. In the learning society, employability and citizenship are inextricably linked to the future of those learners who want to be real protagonists of their future. Globalisation and digitalisation threaten the destruction of jobs that do not rely on cognitive flexibility, social skills and an ethical approach. These skills are the same as those required of citizens in today's society, which has put in place sophisticated instruments of domination, and in which too many people flaunt the fact that they only believe what is convenient for them to believe, but in which, at the same time, information circulates in an accessible and free manner as never before possible.

The learning society proposal overcomes some of the restrictions of the so-called knowledge society. Freedom and equity are not a starting point for us as a society, but rather an objective that acquires its full meaning as a collective purpose, set out from the vision of learning. Thus, learning is configured as a personal responsibility, as well as the main force for social transformation. As Antonio Lafuente points out, "The so-called knowledge society, a formula that serves to name our world, built by means of policies that put it in value through its incorporation into the market as a monetisable asset, should be replaced by a new learning society in whose centre would be the subject who learns, and even more someone who acquires the condition of subject because he or she learns. Better still, we speak of a collective rather than an individual subject: we are because we learn". Learning is a shared reflection on the meaning of what has happened and a collective prospection of what the future should become. Learning is an act of shared knowledge creation.

In this sense, few reports are as clarifying about the challenges facing the university institution as "The Futures of Universities Thoughtbook", in its 2020 edition "Universities in times of crisis" offers a suggestive prospective vision of the global higher education ecosystem for the year 2040. This overview includes the idea of "Life partner", considered as one of the five essential areas for university transformation; "Beyond traditional students who begin their university studies directly after high school and before they have work experience, the notion of students expands to include individuals at all stages of life". Ultimately, the study foresees that it will increasingly become an essential task of the university to enhance and improve the skills of members of society throughout their lives, so that they can successfully meet the challenges of a changing world.

In Arun Sundararajan's words, author of the book "The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism", "Instead of focusing primarily on two- or four-year post-secondary institutions that educate early in life, as we did in the 20th century, society must create strong educational institutions that help workers make a mid-career transition. Countries around the world, most notably the United States, have invested heavily in universities and colleges that prepare their workforce early in life for a full-time employment career. Much of that effort should be directed towards dramatically increasing the availability and quality of continuing education.

Citizenship and employability, longevity and lifelong learning are changing the terms of the relationship between the University and society, and invite us to think about how to shape "The educated hope" that Henry Giroux talks about in "When Hope is subversive" from the University, and act "by opening a space for dissent, holding authority accountable and becoming an active presence in promoting social transformation." In short, to build the "right to the University".

Bibliography

Beruete, Santiago Aprendivoros. Editorial: Turner 2021

Broncano, Fernando.Puntos ciegos. Ignorancia pública y conocimiento privado. Ediciones Lengua de Trapo. Madrid, 2019

Bruckner, Pascal Un instante eterno. Filosofía de la longevidad.Ediciones Siruela, S.A. 2021

Centro nacional del envejecimiento CENIE Universidad de Salamancahttps://cenie.eu/es/blogs

De Lucas Sanz, Milagros. La escuela vaciada. Editorial popular. 2021

Dede Christopher J. , John RichardsThe 60-Year Curriculum New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy Published by Routledge 2020

Gratton, Lynda,Scott, AndrewThe 100-year life. Living and working in an age of longevity Editorial:Bloomsbury Publishing 2016

López Alós Javier Crítica de la razón precaria: la vida intelectual antela obligación de lo extraordinario. Editorial Catarata, 2019

Magro, Carlos Co.labora.redhttps://carlosmagro.wordpress.com/carlosmagro/

Rodríguez, Joaquín La furia de la lectura Ediciones TUSQUETS. 2021

Sundararajan Arun. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism. The MIT Press 2016

Trujillo Sáez Fernando Propuestas para una escuela en el Siglo XXI (Educación Activa) 2012

U-Ranking 2021. Indicadores sintéticos de las universidades españolas. Fundación BBVA y el Ivie

References

1. “Estrategia España 2050” recently presented by the President of the Government poses challenges for Spanish society that are fully in line with the Learning Society. And he does so with clarity: "Spain will have to make a decisive and forceful commitment to education (from birth to old age), multiply its efforts in R&D", to go on to point out that "demographic change will substantially reduce our workforce, but if we manage to cut the unemployment rate and raise the employment rate to the current levels of the most advanced countries in Europe (i.e. a 15-point increase to 80%), we will manage to neutralise to a large extent the negative effects of ageing. At least five of the eight items in the Spain 2050 Strategy document directly affect the proposals in this article: "The first chapter examines the challenge of productivity and the pattern of economic growth. The second chapter examines the challenge of educating the younger population. The third chapter addresses the challenge of training and re-skilling the workforce. The fifth chapter looks at the challenge of adapting our welfare state to a longer-lived society. The seventh chapter examines the shortcomings of our labour market and its potential future developments".

2. In the case of Spain, we can affirm that the role of the university has been key to the success of the social, economic and cultural transformation that has taken place in the country over the last four decades. In this period, Spain has greatly increased its proportion of inhabitants with a tertiary qualification (university or higher vocational training) until it has converged with the EU-8 countries. The proportion of people with tertiary education (university or higher vocational training) has increased from 16% (among those born in the 1940s) to 47% (among those born in the 1980s).

3. "Traditionally, living longer has been seen as being old for longer, there is evidence that this convention will be reversed and people will be younger for longer "The 100-year life. Living and working in an age of longevity. Gratton, Lynday Scott, Andrew 2016.

4. Over the next three decades, the life expectancy of the Spanish population will continue to increase (it could rise by more than 3 years), which will lead to a sharp ageing of our demographic pyramid. In 2050, one in three Spaniards will be 65 or older, and for every person in this age group there will be only 1.7 people between 16 and 64 years of age (today, there are 3.4). The old age of the future will not be the old age of the past. It will start much later, it will be more dynamic, and it will not be so closely associated with phenomena such as inactivity or dependency. This means that, if we make the necessary institutional and cultural changes, in the coming decades, the employment rate of Spaniards at an advanced age could increase considerably and of their own free will.

5. The World Economic Forum's 2020 Report on the Future of Employment provides a global perspective on the training demands of both the workers likely to remain in their roles, as well as those at risk of losing their jobs, brought about by the labour market transformations we are experiencing and their inevitable impact on training providers. On average, employers expect to offer training and upskilling to 70% of their employees by 2025. By 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge more suited to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.