At a time when economic, social and technological change is taking place at a particularly rapid pace, thinking about pedagogical innovation also means asking what is expected of higher education today and how institutions prepare students for professional and social settings that are constantly changing. Paulo Pereira, Rector of the Universidade Técnica do Porto, opened his address at the 2026 Internal Conference on Pedagogical Innovation from this perspective, placing people’s education and the development of skills at the heart of the discussion.
For Paulo Pereira, higher education institutions play a decisive role in a model of development that increasingly depends on knowledge, technology and innovation. Their responsibility therefore extends beyond passing on an established body of scientific knowledge. Educational programmes must respond to society’s present and future needs, teaching methods must evolve, and education must enable students to develop the skills to understand, act and keep learning in contexts that will inevitably differ from those we know today.
This is where putting students at the centre takes on a deeper meaning. More than a familiar phrase in educational discourse, it means recognising that learning involves participation, autonomy and the active construction of knowledge. Paulo Pereira recalled the shift from models focused primarily on the teacher’s behaviour towards approaches that seek to understand what happens for the learner. These approaches recognise the role of cognitive processes, participation and student autonomy in what students are able to build from their educational experiences.
This shift is particularly important given the growing diversity of students entering higher education. They bring different backgrounds, circumstances, expectations and needs, presenting institutions with interconnected challenges involving learning, academic success, inclusion and the prevention of dropout. If student populations have changed, teaching must be able to change too, finding ways to engage different students and create genuine opportunities for everyone to progress.
Paulo Pereira also reflected on teachers’ own pedagogical development. Much of what a teacher initially considers a good lesson takes shape long before they begin teaching: during their years as a student, through the teachers they encountered and the practices they came to regard as familiar. This socialisation creates ideas, beliefs and expectations about what it means to teach well. Yet accumulated experience does not replace the need for pedagogical reflection that questions these models and brings them into dialogue with what we now know about learning.
In this sense, innovation means creating conditions in which teachers can continue to learn, examine their practices in light of new perspectives and find ways to respond to different students and contexts. That is precisely why pedagogical innovation goes beyond the occasional adoption of a tool, method or technology. It depends on institutions’ ability to build a culture in which teaching is continually examined, tested and developed.
Rapid technological change adds another dimension to this challenge. Technologies are part of the daily lives of students and teachers, and they will continue to transform how people access information, communicate and produce knowledge. The question for higher education, then, is less whether these technologies will be present than how to integrate them in ways that make pedagogical sense, preserve what matters in the learning process and support students’ development.
It was in this context that Paulo Pereira emphasised the importance of an institutional culture of pedagogical innovation: one that supports teachers in reviewing their practices and makes teaching quality a shared institutional responsibility. This is also where bodies such as the Pedagogical Innovation Center for find their purpose - bringing people together, creating opportunities for training and reflection, and helping turn scattered concerns into sustained processes of improvement.
In opening JIIP'26, Paulo Pereira thus put forward an idea that would run through many of the conference discussions: the future of higher education depends as much on what we know as on our ability to create experiences in which students can apply that knowledge, develop skills and take an increasingly active role in their own learning.