Every organisation needs a strategy—a plan of how it's going to achieve what it has set out to do. More than that, a strategy needs to also embody an element of the strategy's goal. For Globethics.net, that element is ETHICS: Empowerment, Transformation, Holistic approach, Integrity, Competences and Sustainability.

Last August, we brought together the Globethics.net Regional Programmes, National Contacts, members of the Globethics.net Consortium for Ethics in Higher Education and key stakeholders, for a 3-day strategic workshop full of planning and fellowship to decide how best to collaborate to address the needs of higher education institutions to integrate ethics into their culture.

This event was the perfect opportunity to share the plan of action for both the products and programmes of Globethics.net and inform about the market, policies, promotion, partnership development and principles for outreach in the various regions.

Moving forward, it has become clear that there are two categories of higher education institutions that need our support:

• Institutions that need institutional capacity development in foundational ethics, which will assist them in becoming reputable, recognised and competitive institutions
• Institutions that, besides having selected institutional capacity development needs, are keen on international relations, global networking and partnerships in research and teaching of ethics.

ETHICS remains the constant basic need in higher education institutions. ETHICS means Empowerment and Transformation, using a Holistic approach, promoting Integrity and developing Competence with Sustainability for the common good.

We are delighted to have among our leadership Prof. Dr Amélé Ekué, the new Academic Dean, who will play an integral role in the continuing development of Globethics.net's education programmes. Dr Ekué succeeds Prof. Christoph Stücklberger, who acted as the Interim Academic Dean for one year.

We at Globethics.net believe that education is the key that opens the door for change, and want to meet the need so that ethics education becomes transdisciplinary. As C.S. Lewis has commented, 'Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man [and woman] a more clever devil.' Without ethics in education, a better world is not possible. To rethink education means that we transform our lives and re-evaluate our values to save ourselves.