The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound consequences on the social, economic and cultural life at the global level. The educational dimension has also been affected in the schools’ regular functioning, with the temporary closure of educational institutions, as well as the impediment of face-to-face classes. This perspective paper aims to add to the knowledge already produced on this topic, by arguing that these challenging conditions can be a pivotal moment of opportunity for reshaping higher education, with the implementation, development and diffusion, among academics and students, of digital technologies. The paper also discusses the role of leadership in the transformation of organizational culture in higher education. The methodology used to carry out this study is qualitative, and the technique employed to analyze the data collected was content analysis. Research studies, in diverse formats, already published on the COVID-19 topic and its impacts were the elected data sources. The results of this document analysis allow us to conclude that there is the need to improve the digital sustainable development in teaching in higher education, which entails profound challenges that higher education institutions need to face and overcome if they want to be at the forefront of success in the international education market. This is where the authors seek to contribute, by offering insights on the challenges—but also the opportunities—that COVID-19 poses to higher education at a time when it needs to redefine its teaching methods, leadership models, and interaction channels, by going digital towards the improvement of the sustainable development of its teaching.

At a time when the labour market is blocked and simultaneously rapidly changing, with the emergence of new professional and scientific areas, the higher education mission becomes less indisputable and more indeterminate and challenging. This uncertainty was the leitmotiv for this essay, which aims to discuss the importance of attaining transversal competences in higher education. To achieve this goal, a bibliographical research was carried out on the attention that is currently given by higher education institutions to this topic, how they respond to the need for increasingly more transversal training and how they develop a curriculum that meets these requirements. Thus, in methodological terms, a thorough research on the literature addressing the topic of transversal competences was carried out; subsequently, a document search was conducted and a qualitative review and analysis of the documents collected was performed to justify our stance. Our analysis allowed concluding that the context of indeterminacy regarding the future has variations, considering the geographical and political situation, the social context and the activity sector. Furthermore, attitudes, expectations and predispositions are also critical elements for the success of this process of transversal competences’ attainment. This latter factor is central in this process, as there is often a gap between students’ expectations regarding the competences they expect to attain in higher education and the proposals that frame their training at the micro, meso and macrosocial levels and which take the need to attain transversal competences in higher education for granted.

This opinion article intends to address the emergence of what will, potentially, be a central concept in a very nearfuture, that of Society 5.0, and that emerges politically as a (con)sequence of the implementation of the concept ofIndustry 4.0. By proposing a deepening of the potential of the individual-technology relationship in fostering theimprovement of the quality of life of all people through a super-intelligent society, Society 5.0 is an extremely recentconcept as a guide for social development and that can have a profound impact on societies at all levels, such as interms of the quality of life and sustainability. This presentation is based on very recent publications, but it also has aprospective component, which always generates some indeterminacy and uncertainty. Also for this reason, thiscontribution seeks, above all, to help in this very urgent and necessary discussion.

Micro, meso and macro are levels or scales that can and may be mobilised in social analysis. This paper aims to contribute to the reflection and discussion, in particular, of the use of the meso level in the apprehension of social reality, in its potential advantages and disadvantages. For this purpose, a document collection and selection was carried out. Furthermore, the authors’ experience in teaching and research in social sciences, especially in the area of Sociology, was also used. This analytical exercise allows concluding that the meso-social level is mobilised in some perspectives, focusing in a privileged way on the group or the organisation as a structure and intermediate process between the other two levels. As for implications, it may be asserted that the meso level only has heuristic capabilities in the interpretation of a particular social context if the other two levels are not neglected in the analysis.

The metaverse is unavoidable in an increasingly digitalized society and will potentially have a profound influence on what is understood as teaching and learning in its formal and informal dimensions, both in initial and continuing education. This research, carried out through document analysis, aims to reflect on several challenges and opportunities that the metaverse poses to education as a source of opportunities for a more relevant and effective teaching process, which necessarily involves the development of both the implementation and monitoring of research studies in the follow-up of education in the metaverse environment.

The digitalization of societies, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is an unstoppable process. This paper seeks to answer the question: what post-COVID-19 digital competences are needed for a sustainable society? It also aims to analyze the digitalization processes in education for shaping a sustainable digital society. A bibliographic search was performed on some of the most relevant international databases of scientific literature and the selected documents were analyzed through a content analysis. It is concluded that digital education has experienced a strong increase, reinforced by COVID-19, shaping the digital presence in all dimensions of life. However, it is not sufficient to assume that the new generations are naturally engaged in and can master digital social sustainability. The results demonstrate the importance of literacy and the unavoidable promotion of sustainability in a digital society. However, this digitalization of the educational process poses several challenges: it requires both software and hardware conditions, as well as digital literacy as a result of a complex of literacies. It also implies that teachers and students change their standpoints and practices with the attainment of new teaching and learning competences in order to fight the digital divide and to foster the widest possible social inclusion for the promotion of sustainable society—digitainability.