Creating the University of The Future

“The challenge is for Universities to orientate themselves towards specific tasks to help resolve problems in the world.” Juan Romo, rector at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

How can we create the University of the future without first peering into the future to see how the University will be then come back to the present to create that University? The truth is there is no University of the future. The future is only what we imagined and create.

According to Newton’s First Law of motion, the university system will remain the way it is except someone decided to change its trajectory. Human nature will not allow those who are currently profiting and benefiting from the way the system is to change it.

One thing I have come to realize is that change is inevitable. If you are not the one initiating the change, you may be the one trying to catch up or even the one that is rendered irrelevant by the change. Change is normal and part of life. Those who are unwilling to change will end up in the museum of the past.

The best way to predict the way the University will be in the future is to presently imagine and then create it. No one can really say what industry will be in the future. It can only just be created. Right now it may look like the Universities will continue on the path they are heading, but someone somewhere will bring about the change that will either make the Universities stronger and relevant or weak and outdated.

I believe very strongly that for society to be better, Universities need to change their focus. They need to transform themselves in order to stay relevant. To play an important role in the future, Universities need to change and play become a partner with industry to create that future.

Imagination will play a key role in making the Universities play an active part with the industry to create the future. Unfortunately, the University lean more towards theory than imaginations. Imagination is more powerful than knowledge. Knowledge will keep us maintain the past, while imagination will help us create the future.

Traits of Universities of The Future

One thing I am sure of is that the role of the Universities in the future will change

1. Meets The Needs of Industry

I see a University that is more focusing on building a partnership with industry. It sees and understands its place in the value chain of business. It will serve as capacity building centers for employees of industries as well as the research and development centers of businesses.

This will help the business focus on what they do better: serving the customer. Universities in the future will be very much linked to industries and will not be stand alone. They will be a part of a system that works to serve people and make life better for others.

This will help the industry cut the cost of manpower development and R&D. A couple of businesses can fund similar research. The future will be more about Universities bringing competitors together as partners to better serve people and lift the living standard of the world’s poor. Universities will be focused on being significant than being successful.

2. Focusing on Equipping Not Teaching

Knowledge is no longer as important as skills. In today’s world, what you can do is far more important than what you know. The power of knowledge is application. If you cannot help government and industry solve its problems, what you know doesn’t really matter. 

Today, we have a University where students are taken through years of teaching and indoctrination with knowledge. No one cares if the knowledge is outdated. You will have to assimilate it to pass your exams and have a chance at succeeding in life. Those days are coming to an end.

In the future, people won’t have to spend 4 to 9 years getting a degree. They can learn the skills and they use their imaginations and empathetic skills to anticipate the needs of people and create solutions for them. Learning will be focused on skills and not theories. Subjects like mathematics will focus on using it to solve real-life problems.

Fields will also merge. Engineering will have an element of arts, human behavioral studies, and anthropology to it. Courses of the future will be more simplified than complex. Anyone can learn skills in multiple fields. It's going to be skill-focused.

3. Create Great Student Experience

Students will no longer be attracted to Universities because of the courses being taught, the professors and history of the University but rather because of the student experience. The quality of students and skills they are equipped with will determine new revenue source for Universities. To attract more students, the staging of experiences must become the major pursuit of universities. By staging experiences for students, Universities will have the greatest opportunities to create value.

The future will be built on experiences. The Universities that will survive in the future will be those who treat their students as a factory handles its raw materials. Students must be attracted through the creation of great experiences that wow. Education will become interesting, entertaining and exciting.

4. Incubating Entrepreneurs

Yahoo and Google were businesses incubated in the University. In the future, we will see the University playing a more significant role in incubating businesses and entrepreneurs.

Projects will no longer be a requirement to earn a certificate but rather students working in groups taking on the challenge of the world, developing a solution and building an enterprise around it. The University will become one big experimental business incubator and accelerator. It will play a role in setting up businesses that will disrupt business as Unusual.

If the Universities doesn’t disrupt businesses, businesses will disrupt it and make it extinct.