There is an ongoing discussion with colleagues about A VISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FUTURE. The main concern is how to improve university education and what are steps and directions for such improvements.
It seems to me that the main problem of the already presented approaches is that they resemble an attempt to treat an already dead entity. The sad truth is that there will be no universities or formally centralized education in the societal landscape of the future. I will demonstrate this with a well-known example related to industry.
An outdated model - Manufacturers Distributors Consumers is already dead. Distributors (in their classical meaning, and a number of them) no longer needed. Due to the radical changes in the attitudes and preferences of consumers and the technological opportunities that have arisen, distributing units must be shut down or converted into directing units (or platforms) that are aimed to interconnect producers and consumers directly. Or even more difficult, to interconnect prosumers and to arrange and direct such connections between prosuming agents. The new (but not the newest) model is – Manufacturers Directing (interconnecting) unit (or platform) Consumers.
Returning to education, the model (by analogy) is as follows. Families (as producers of children) -> Universities (and the other units of formal education as distributors in their classical meaning) -> Industry (jobs, working places). The role of the current university is to connect families and jobs, segregate them, adding retail values to children (as classic distributors usually do). But it is already out of date. Even adding reverse arrows to the model (as in the industry model, and we could observe such desperate attempts like STEM, STEAM, industry requirements, or similar) will not help.
There is a need for another model – Families (as producers of children) Directing (interconnecting) unit (or platform) Industry (jobs, working places). It is needed to link each child personally (by means of technology and from the very moment of his or her birth) and his or her prospective workplace, as well as further direct the process by providing relevant services in the long term and on demand.
What to do? Just to forget about improvement of the university or other units of formal education and to focus on families and children, their needs and expectations, providing practical and technologically supported organizational opportunities for personal development and growth of children, and which will be personally associated with a specified number of prospective employment (or another form of future activities) opportunities.
Technically such solutions start to emerge, like for example ubiquitous or seamless educational approaches, but this just the start and I think it will be subject to acceleration caused by the Black Swan in the form of coronavirus issues and China’s relevant response promoting distance education. Instead of formal educational institutions, directing (interconnecting or logistics) units will appear. But, of course, this requires further discussions, since it is associated with a large number of issues, such as philosophical, political, methodological, technological, etc. ... but this is a different story.
It would be nice if you could share your ideas and your vision or your links to your contribution regarding the role and embodiment of the university (or formal education in general) of the future. To be, or not to be … and what is the future of academics and academia? May be we can collect ideas and develop a list of prospective authors for a journal SI to be further published, or to arrange a project on this topic… looking forward to your comments and productive discussion.
The university of the future must be more digital, more flexible and more specialized. Higher education needs a constant update and adapted to the new reality, in a few years there may not be half of the current universities.
The new University must be approached from the social, pedagogical and technological perspectives. An education where technologies occupy a great place, more tangible, more practical education, based on experience and greater social interaction between students. Greater domain of digital competence, which is what any professional and social sector demands. Today, new technologies allow us to learn everywhere, they open doors to more ubiquitous and delocalized forms of learning that were unthinkable a few years ago.
The university and company agreements must be strengthened: a greater involvement of companies in learning, trying to reproduce real life situations to the fullest, where students can develop or acquire new skills.
Students are prosumers who must have access to the consumption of practical content by breaking the space-time barriers: open access to digital repositories is an example.
Enhance specific training that meets real, concrete and immediate needs. The internationalization and specialization of education must be a standardized process, seeking excellence in each discipline to be more professionally competitive.
In future, the University of research study should fully utilize the IoT in developing high impact research.
The the measure strategy for the University future, fact finding research and discovery new skills of education, this will help both Lectures and students,, the University can also have good, when the university is not based student Results,
According to my feeling the University of the future as a first priority should concentrate on the smooth knowledge transfer from the external business experts towards students. The second priority is to create a library of attractive video courses to be downloadable for further use.
The University of the future should also serve as a point for discussion or open communication between the students and lecturers. We need to try the bridge the gap between academic and real life requirements.
Video master classes and open access will be essential.
In a global world, the university must be open, adapted to new technologies, with access to continuously updated digital resources and open knowledge.
Increasing competition, blurring boundaries (across industries), the rise of lifelong learning, the changing world of work, the multiplying scope of expertise, and—above all perhaps since it underpins so much—evolving digital behavior are drivers of change now shaping the future of higher education, over which universities have limited control. (Libraries too are being impacted by information and communication technology—and much else—and it helps to compare and contrast.) Depending on circumstances, not forgetting the extent of government involvement, a number of scenarios by means of which universities will have to create, capture, and deliver value can be worked out in a new ecology of organizations. Irrespective, there is little doubt that—excepting extreme scenarios—the university of the future will be characterized by more numerous and closer interfaces with the private, public, and third sectors, orchestrated through sundry activities with community-based organizations, laboratories, social enterprises, start-ups, think tanks, etc., within and across which students will mingle.
University of the future is the dispersed global (reginal) system of points-of-learning. This will combine the access to endless digitalized materials and real face-to-face seminars (short courses, training sessions) spread over the globe. In addition, this system must include a dispersed set of specific laboratories, computer centers, seminar rooms for group work etc. Finally, there will be hundreds of specialized TV channels delivering videoed courses in particular disciplines.
There will be less independent universities but several national, regional and global university systems with the equal access to all their facilities to all students. In addition, there will be semi-separate systems built to provide undergraduate education in the national languages and global master-PhD-Post-Doc systems using English as a common language.
I do not suppose that there will be any age or nationality restrictions to enter that system. The financing will be combined -- a small share will be paid by students (for knowledge that can be immediately turned into ready-to-use skills valued by the job market or to be used to make real money), a significant part of money will go from the government(s) and a significant part -- from particular corporations or employers association. I also see within the next 10 years the creation of the global education fund under UN (UNESCO) to serve for additional financing of that system and supporting the necessary facilities (learning access points, covering the cost of travel, accommodation and salaries of 'real professors', national educational TV channels, etc.) in poorer countries.
Of course, this is just a dream, the proposed system is emerging now and within 10-20 years became the dominant one.
transforming from traditional to electronic education especially in developing countries
Example vision of the university of the future - Taylors University
To achieve balanced excellence and be recognized as a leading international university ranked in the top 100 universities in Asia by 2022.
We want to be recognized by all of our close stakeholders and the higher education sector worldwide as a world class international university which is:
- First choice for students, staff, employers and academic and business partners
- Offering, innovative and relevant degree programmes
- Producing high impact research and knowledge transfer
- Home to high reputation academics, respected by their peers and by policy makers and professional practitioner
This vision will be achieved by focusing on the following priorities:
- Maintaining our reputation for teaching excellence and a quality student experience
- Developing our reputation as an important center for excellent research and achieving balanced excellence
- Building commercial success
- Making international engagement our distinctive cross-cutting theme
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