The Evolving Role of Universities in Post Covid Industry 4.0 World

LEARNING CITIZEN INDUSTRY 4.0 CONFERENCE (July 24th, 2020)

https://moet.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/tin-tong-hop.aspx?ItemID=6812

Welcome Address by Rohit Verma, VinUniversity

Good morning and Xin Chao.

Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. V? ??c ?am; Former Vice - President of Vietnam, Prof. Nguy?n Th? Doan; Minister of Education and Training, Prof. Phùng Xuan Nh?; University leaders from across Vietnam; Honored guests; ladies and gentlemen;

On behalf of President of VinUniversity Dr. Ms. Mai Lan, our leadership team, faculty, and staff, I am delighted to welcome you to VinUniversity. My name is Rohit Verma, and I have the honor of serving as VinUniversity’s Provost.

I would like to thank the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education (VAPE), and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for organizing this conference to discuss a very timely and important topic – the evolving role of Universities in building and implementing a “Learning Citizen” model for the Industry 4.0 world that we live in now.

The human civilization has evolved from agricultural economy

·      to the 1st industrial revolution that brought steam power and simple machines; then

·      to the 2nd industrial revolution that created mass production, assembly lines and standardized products; leading to

·      the 3rd industrial revolution of computerized production and automated processes.

Generally speaking, the educational models at universities during this time-period was built around the premise that the students should learn facts, and receive knowledge from their teachers, in a structured curriculum developed in well-defined academic disciplines.

If I am not mistaken, a majority of us present in this room probably had similar experiences in their universities. Was this the best possible approach for higher education for us? Maybe so, in the past, but definitely not so, for the present and the future. 

Now, we live in a world transformed by the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds. These developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.

Mobile super-computing, Intelligent robots, Self-driving cars, Neuro-technological brain enhancements, Genetic editing, and Artificial intelligence -- Dramatic change is all around us and it’s happening at exponential speed.

On a very personal level, I already see the impact of Industry 4.0 on education and lives of my own two children, both of whom after having recently graduated from Cornell, are embarking on career paths very different from what they started their college with. The knowledge and skills they acquired in classroom just a few months ago is no longer sufficient. I see them constantly exploring new topics and concepts using non-traditional learning channels such as MOOCs, YouTube, Kahn Academy and other open-source platforms. I am sure many colleagues present in this room today have experiences similar to these for their own children 

Ladies and Gentlemen, in order for – our children and our grandchildren – to happily and productively live & work in a world where the traditional boundaries between humans and machines are transcended, they will need to learn differently.

In his book, Future Shock, the futurist Alvin Toffler wrote:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."

When basic knowledge on a wide-range of topics is readily available by a click of a button on a lap-top computer or a by a few spoken words to “Seri” or Alexa” on our mobile phones, what should be the role of universities during this changed world?

My VinUni colleagues and I believe, that in this new world,

• Universities must become institutions that foster innovative thinking, creativity, curiosity, and design-thinking and nurture competent lifelong learners.
• According to a Dell Technologies and Institute for the Future (IFTF) report, 85 percent of the jobs in 2030 don’t exist yet. Education must become a lifelong endeavor, and education need to evolve to explore new opportunities.
• Where the role of the teacher is not to distil information to students that they then memorize. Rather the teacher becomes a guide to help students facilitate their own learning and lines of inquiry and learn without boundaries of discipline, methods, geographical locations, language, gender and such.
• Universities should partner more closely with industry-co-teaching, guest lecturing, sponsoring team projects and providing mentorship such that students get increased access to mentors and internships, schools improve the relevancy of their curriculum, and companies get the first pick of rising talent.
• The COVID crisis has made it clear that the learning in face-to-face classroom environment need to be augmented by online and hybrid forms of engagement.
• In order for technology to deliver on its promise of human betterment, it needs a cultural and moral compass. The subjects that instill this compass are arts, history, language, literature- called the humanities; and sociology, psychology, anthropology, called the social sciences. If we want a better future for the future generations-one that is prosperous, kind, caring and intellectually capable, higher education must continue to pay as much attention to the humanities as it does to STEM based education.

Let me briefly share the example of VinUniversity – the University of Excellence Developing Talents for the future.

The academic programs within VinUni are developed in close collaboration with Cornell University and University of Pennsylvania but adapted for the Vietnamese context. The curricula across three professional colleagues (Business, Engineering and Computer Science, Health Sciences) and Faculty of Arts & Sciences are integrated, multi-disciplinary and based on active-learning pedagogy.

The Vingroup ecosystem of organizations, in addition to providing generous financial support, will also be actively engaged in many aspects of educational, research, and career mentorships programs. The university campus is designed to foster collaboration and entrepreneurship and for balanced and nurturing student experience.

Our faculty come from Vietnam and several countries around the world including Australia, Cyprus, Canada, Greece, Italy, India, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, United States, and beyond.

The VinUniversity example illustrates that partnerships between collaborators from universities, private sector enterprises such as VinGroup, and governmental agencies such as MOET, innovative educational institutions can be created to better meet the needs of the future.

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help create an innovative university for developing the next generation of Vietnamese, regional and world leaders, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs has given me and my expat colleagues such as Dean Maurizio Trevisan a chance to meet students from all around the country. Quite frankly, we are extremely impressed by both academic and non-academic achievements, passion, and maturity in these young adults. We have also found our Vietnamese colleagues to be hard-working, dedicated, and very friendly.

Thank you very much for welcoming us to Vietnam with open arms and hearts. 

I believe that Vietnam has an opportunity to make a profound change, and perhaps take the leadership role, in developing universities for the industry 4.0 period. To be able to do so, we as university leaders must be willing to embrace the change ourselves.

In closing I would like to quote, President Ho Chi Minh who said “Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.”

Ladies and Gentlemen – this is the time for Vietnamese universities to build and enhance their strength for the Industry 4.0 world.

Thank you. C?m ?n.