Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Universities of the Future Are Already Here

Halloran and Friday (2018) have explored four scenarios for the future of Australian universities: Champion University (government supported), Commercial University (financially independent), Disruptor University (micro-certificates for the workplace), Virtual University
(integrated universities and vocational institutes). However, this is not as radical as it might seem. Australia already has elements of all these approaches. I have been teaching into some of their programs, for more than a decade.

Computing is perhaps the discipline leading for providing vocationally relevant globally recognized education. The biggest impediment I see is the lack of education qualifications of university academic staff and government regulations. However, Australia has to be careful not to destroy the very valuable higher education brand it has with international students in any change.

I abandoned teaching face-to-face in 2008 and have been  mostly online since then.  For my own education I tried online university courses in 2011 and then switched to studying completely online internationally in 2013. The idea of turning up to a specific place at a specific time to teach or learn seems a very dated idea.

Reference


Halloran, Lucille & Friday, Catherine. (2018, April). The University of the Future: Can the universities of today lead learning for tomorrow?  Ernst & Young Australia. URL http://cdn.ey.com/echannel/au/en/industries/government---public-sector/ey-university-of-the-future-2030/EY-university-of-the-future-2030.pdf

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