Organizing the University 4.0: New Goals and Insights to Promote the Digital Transformation of Higher Education Institutions to Succeed Next E-learning Era

In response to the negative economic impacts for EU citizens of COVID-19 and Ukraine war, in the EU educational market, it is urgent to support digital transformation plans at all levels by effective activities and customized online services. It is also required to support new inclusive smart digital pedagogical methods and advanced skills for a resilient free adoption of digital tools for professors (digital integrated learning, advanced multimedia simulations, but also interactive 3D, VR, holographic tools, AR, gamification, virtual simulations, 3D and 360° immersive environments, etc.). New effective learning paths have to be considered also for students, including participants with fewer opportunities: physically impaired (deaf, blind, paralytic), cognitive impaired, and low-income learners. This with the aim to create the condition of a more EU integrated strategy to imply a real digital revolution in educational processes and learning skills and to prepare advices and proposals for several organizations in the field such as: EU Council on the enabling factors for successful digital education by 2024, OECD and UN, the EU Future Government 2030+, the EU’s strategy for e-Skills in the 21st Century, KES international network, and the FOME—Future of Management Education international scientific alliance. So digital technologies, used properly, can make this transition possible: surely, there had been several e-learning platforms for some years now, but their role has only in the last months gained massive relevance concurrently with the pandemic global situation. At the moment, only online universities are already ready for a smart better-quality distance learning, with innovative tools for courses’ management, including live sessions, interactive teaching, and collaborative activities. Most EU universities had to cope with the new trends of e-learning (for the authors identified as University 4.0) that is requiring for universities a quick organizational and cultural rearrangement and a change of strategies that perhaps represented the most difficult step for professors and administrative staff.