In the forthcoming two decades a dramatic change is expected in the societal, economic, technological, demographic and political environment of all education systems. These future changes are already imposing serious adaptation challenges to individual schools and school system. The “Future Challenges to Education Systems in Central Eastern European Context” (EDUC) is focusing on the following five sets of major external challenges: (1) the impact of new technologies on the labor market, (2) demographic changes and the new patterns of migration, (3) the impact of populist and authoritarian politics, (4) prevailing old and emerging new societal inequalities and (5) the impact of the globalization of learning environments and the internationalization of education. The education systems of the most developed countries are responding to these challenges by the reconsideration of goals for learning, by efforts for making education more personalized, by an emphasis on ever lengthier general education, by a new wave of the expansion of higher education and by experimenting with new methods of educational governance.

The EDUC research is focusing on the adaptability of education systems determined by the interplay between governance and the institutional operation of schools in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania. The overall purpose of the research is looking at global changes in the specific context of the Central Eastern European countries along two major questions:

In the selected five countries of the region what are the major incentives for, and the main obstacles to shifting to an education that is more personalized, that is oriented towards the development of adaptive skills and that is more equitable?
How much are the various future challenges reflected upon in the educational policy discourse and in education modernization strategies of the CEE countries?

The research is based on writing country case studies, thematic comparative papers and on comparative statistical analysis with the involvement of individual researcher from the five countries. The audience of the EDUC project academic researchers, the educational policy communities of the countries of the region and international development organizations.

The end-product of the EDUC project will be an electronic book published by CPS containing thematic summary studies.