The COVID-19 pandemic ushered unprecedented challenges globally. The disruption and damage to human life and organizations caused by the pandemic are global in scale. Though pandemics are not new in human history, this is the first time the pandemic spread around the world within a few months. Shutting down all educational institutions with nationwide lockdowns in countries around the world was the only way to contain the spread of the virus. Higher educational institutions slowly transformed their mode of daily operations into online mode once it became apparent that the pandemic was a long haul. In this introductory chapter of the book, we argue that the pandemic could become "a portal" for bringing transformative changes within the higher education sector in the future. Thereby, we provide illustrative examples of this possibility through brief overview of all the chapters in this book written by higher education experts, researchers, senior administrators and university leaders around the world, who analyze the changes happening within the higher education sector during the pandemic and share their vision for the future.