Can universities mobilize to solve the equitable education challenge?

This is my first time celebrating the UNESCO International Day of Education as EY’s Global Education Leader. I’ve long been a passionate advocate for the power of education to create sustainable societies as I believe the best future for all of us depends on providing everyone with equitable, high-quality education. ??

Today, I know most of the UN’s focus will be on the 258 million children who still do not attend school at all – and the 617 million children and adolescents who cannot read or do basic maths.

But I also believe we need to challenge ourselves to think bigger. It is not enough simply to aim to increase primary school attendance and basic literacy. We must also work to rapidly expand access to higher education for students and adults in emerging economies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to new ways of teaching. Digital and online learning are helping us re-imagine how we educate.

EY teams have been working with some of the world’s most innovative university leaders to explore what this could mean for higher education around the world. The output from this thought experiment is a new paper, Are universities of the past still the future?, which explores five plausible ‘what if’ scenarios. These range from creating flexible and customizable learning journeys to commercial research that can pay for itself. The report aims to provoke thought and debate.

Our fifth scenario questions whether technology could solve the global supply-demand mismatch. It could be an answer to the equitable education challenge.

In this scenario, in 2030, a post-graduate engineering student in Luanda, Angola can access leading-edge teaching from the recognized leader in her field without having to leave her hometown. Her remote learning is supplemented with occasional trips to her local campus for instructor-led, synchronous teaching delivered via high-speed video link from overseas professors or to use the campus laboratories. Her course fees are comparable to those of a local university degree, but she leaves with sought after, recognized and internationally transferable credentials.?????????

Impossible? I don’t think so.?

Yes, previous attempts by Western universities to establish campuses in emerging markets have not proven sustainable. But, today, there are real opportunities to partner with local universities to establish a physical (micro-hub) or virtual presence.

With the undergraduate student population in advanced economies declining, it’s inevitable that universities will turn their attention to emerging economies – just as new online and hybrid learning modes help higher education institutions in emerging economies to exponentially increase their capacity and reach.??

Western universities looking for new markets have a huge opportunity to partner locally to roll out sought-after, high-quality education in these growing markets, using technology to do so at scale and a price point that is affordable locally.

We can imagine that, through partnerships with accredited local universities or digital learning platforms, 10% or 20% of the ‘excess’ teaching capacity from advanced economies could be repurposed to develop and deliver high-quality higher education and skills development for students in emerging economies.?

Of course, we’d need to develop mutually recognized course modules and transferable credits to help mobility, allowing students to begin a course online or at a local campus and then transfer to a physical campus or even overseas for a year to complete their studies. And content will need to be delivered in local languages.

Governments will also have to do their bit: by investing in national technology infrastructure to ensure all students have access to learning devices. And regulations will need to relax around who local institutions can partner with, for what, and which institutions can offer which courses in online or blended mode.

Investment in energy transition will also be essential – to bring cheap, renewable energy to communities that lack a consistent power supply and reliable and sufficient bandwidth.

We can do this!

While it will involve a number of complex moving parts to address inequity in higher education, I believe everyone would gain from boldly taking on this challenge.

Emerging markets could offer Western universities new revenue streams at very low margins but unprecedented scale. Local universities would be able to offer their students globally recognized qualifications at affordable prices. ???

So, today, my call to action is to keep our eyes on the bigger picture. If we can create equitable access to higher education, we’d be building a ‘super-highway’ out of poverty for generations of bright, hard-working citizens.

On International Day of Education, this is the perfect moment for university leaders to consider how they could participate in making that goal a reality.

?The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.