Designing A New Future for Higher Education
View(s):It is a fact that the workforce needs for education are shifting towards lifelong learners. Hence higher education institutes and universities will need to respond in many different areas. Learning about the challenges and trends and the responses that higher education institutions need to face remain relevant in these shifting times. The nature of students is changing. The nature of the workplace also changes. This leads to a change in the science of learning and teaching mechanisms. Fundamentally, society changes at an unprecedented rate and we need to adapt to face new challenges.
Disruption in Higher Education
Higher education is experiencing transformational forces from many directions. The digital transformation is impacting user expectations, skills, risks, and opportunities. Financial challenges are impacting students and institutions. (James Phelps, 2018). It is to be anticipated that the future learners are not necessarily going to be looking for degrees. They’re going to be looking at higher education as a lifelong partner as they go from one point of their lives to another. Young professionals aren’t finding homes in large corporations but at desks in co-working spaces, and they need education to make the next step in their careers. (Rich DeMillo, 2018).
For the last 150 years, higher education has focused all of its attention on delivering quality educational experiences to the age of 18 to 22 year-olds, which is a shrinking population. The demographics simply don’t favor a continued focus on formal learning (traditional learning in degrees) following secondary education. At present more than 4.5 million students are studying outside their home countries a very few of them are choosing to pursue higher education in universities and institutes in their home countries. This is gradually becoming the scenario for Sri Lanka as well.
Challenge: Outbound Student Mobility
Australia is the leading destination for outbound tertiary-level education for Sri Lankans who seek for degrees by a significant margin. According to the data available from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), out of 17,790 students reading for degrees abroad in 2016, 4,403 were pursuing degrees in Australia. Whereas 2,797 students were pursuing their higher education in the United States and 2,507 students were pursuing their higher education in the United Kingdom. UIS data show that India and Malaysia attracted more than one thousand students who are seeking for degrees (WENR, 2016). Though there are no proper statistics about Sri Lankan students studying abroad at present, it is estimated that more than 20,000 students travel abroad for their higher education per annum. The foreign exchange loss due to outbound student mobility is more than LKR 50 billion. The number of inbound students to Sri Lanka is very small and only 986 students from other countries were in Sri Lankan campuses in 2016 and whereas the highest number of students were from Myanmar (348) and Bhutan (157).
How to prepare institutions for this new vision of lifelong education?
Higher educational institutes should be able to build the financial, virtual, and physical infrastructure to provide new pathways for students, different types of credentials, and lifelong learning platforms. An experiential or entrepreneurial campus integrates work experiences deeply into the curriculum, with students toggling between long stretches in the classroom and practical sessions related to their area of study. This back-and-forth movement between theory and practice could train students’ minds differently from a traditional classroom curriculum, which gives employers a chance to evaluate students for potential fits before committing to hiring them for a permanent position.
Critical Steps to Follow
First, we need to help learners cope with the complexity of choices that they’re going to face. While we do have counselors in universities, they don’t play a strategic role; they guide students with related course selections, but they don’t have the tools to help them navigate broader educational choices. We wanted to investigate how technology can help us scale personalized consultation, advising and counseling services. As we move into modern society, G-Z learners will be looking for this kind of trusted advice.
Secondly, we must invest in the technology needed to make that happen. It is highly important to invest in artificial intelligence and data analytics for personalizing services.
Finally, it’s critical that we maintain personal connections. We realized early on that there’s a risk in losing the personal connection that students have with their institutions if we try to fully focus only on technology. We had to re-think how to provide face-to-face, person-to-person connections between the institution and its students, regardless of their current locations.
Vision: Design Your Future
The vision for the future is to change higher education by reintroducing methods of moulding the learner into a person who will go out into the world, implement change, and become a successful leader. The courses use design thinking techniques, and challenges students to design their future. As the higher education industry envisions its future, addressing the needs of today’s student is a key factor. Connecting with Gen Z provides the insight that schools need to evolve, and appeal to prospective families. Understanding this group is a critical component of designing programs that will foster continued support pursuant of advanced degrees, distinguish universities, and keep schools competitive in a saturated market (Bill Burnett, 2018). Studies show that there are three major factors in choosing a higher educational institute
- Career Preparation
- Interesting Course Framework
- Professors (teachers) that invests in the success of the student
NIBM
NIBM envisions its future with the following major thrust areas in the field of higher education and has introduced new courses to bring in new industry focused, futuristic higher education opportunities for the youth in Sri Lanka and the region.
- Ethical Hacking and Information Security
- Machine Learning and Data Science
- Design and Interior Decor
- Engineering in Electronics, Electrical and Manufacturing
- Quantity Survey
- Logistics, Shipping and Supply Chain
- Music and Technology
NIBM today has a student population of more than 10000 both in full time and professional categories and has a permanent academic faculty of more than 70 with the support of 200 external faculty members from related industries. Through its dynamic partnerships with international universities such as Coventry University, an award-winning UK university, ranked 12th in the UK, renowned for excellent teaching, learning and student experience, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, an international University with a global presence across four continents, with international students coming from over 150 countries, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) a public research-intensive university in engineering, science and technology, NIBM currently offers high education opportunities at unbelievably affordable prices for the Sri Lankan students. It is an institute any student can join with trust, to achieve academic excellence. We at NIBM are still young & passionate about improving higher education sector by setting standards based on a platform of best practices. We firmly believe we create a cutting edge by being the best amongst the other players in the industry. We strive to sustain our leadership by keeping well ahead of the future.
Dr. D M A Kulasooriya
Director General
National Institute of Business Management