UT associate professor elected editor-in-chief of the Estonian Human Development Report

The Estonian Cooperation Assembly elected Eneli Kindsiko, Associate Professor in Qualitative Research at the University of Tartu and an expert of the Foresight Centre, as the editor-in-chief of the Estonian Human Development Report (EIA), to be published in 2026.

Kindsiko’s research focuses on higher education, the research system and the academic labour market. She has also led the research strand on the future of teacher succession at the Foresight Centre. The new Human Development Report focuses specifically on education issues and the future of the education system.

According to the new editor-in-chief, our present-day society is influenced by past teaching and learning methods, and modern approaches to learning are shaping the future of education. “Authors of the Human Development Report are experts of different fields, each viewing education from the perspective of their field of activity and asking whether the current education system can respond to society’s needs and prepare young people for the societal challenges,” said Kindsiko. “One of the key skills that is increasingly needed in a world of fast-changing knowledge and must be kept alive in the classroom is curiosity. Everything else can be learned.”

She added that while Estonia has top-level education, our students and teachers are stressed, and the system is overloaded. “To meet the expectations of a changing society, it is necessary to lift something off the shoulders of education. We need to seriously ask ourselves what knowledge and skills should be taught in modern schools and what the future Estonia needs,” Kindsiko explained.

The chapter editors of the Human Development Report, to be published in 2026, include several University of Tartu researchers. 

• Challenges facing education – Maaja Vadi, Professor of Management at the University of Tartu
• Education and politics – Mihkel Solvak, Associate Professor of Technology Research and Vice Dean for Research and Development of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tartu
• Education and segregation – Tiit Tammaru, Professor of Urban and Population Geography at the University of Tartu
• Education and sustainability – Bianka Plüschke-Altof, Research Fellow of Regional Planning at the University of Tartu and Associate Professor in Environmental Sociology at Tallinn University; Monika Suškevics, Tenured Associate Professor at the Estonian University of Life Sciences
• Future scenarios: Estonia in 2050 – Eneli Kindsiko, Associate Professor in Qualitative Research at the University of Tartu 

More information is available in Estonian on the Estonian Cooperation Assembly website.