Understanding the Spatial Implications of Blended Universities
Universities pivoted almost immediately at the start of the pandemic first to online then hybrid working.?The technology was working before COVID struck but its widespread adoption was accelerated infinitely.?Only conservative voices and the needs of certain types of learning and research are suggesting that universities should revert back to the old ways of working.?New models are being adopted and these will inevitably have intended and unintended spatial implications. But it somewhat surprising how little authoritative, comprehensive and comparative research has been completed before new strategies have been developed and investment plans have been made. Two contrasting models and differing case study examples are introduced.
Aspatial / Online
This model is based on an understanding that the world is ‘flat’ and that ‘distance is dead’.?Globalisation, standardisation and the codification of services (e.g. the internet) means emerging technologies can be diffused almost immediately and become accessible instantly around much of the developed world. In this model, it matters not at all physically where a university is based, nor indeed where any student, firm or other organisation is based.?What matters instead is excellence of supply and the products most attractive to?the wider marketplace will outcompete other suppliers. Crude economic theory suggests therefore that an open market tends in the long run, not to a multiplicity of suppliers but towards a more monopolistic form of supply.?
Example.?The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a genuinely world class university. MIT has moved quickly to take advantage of its position in the market by moving hundreds of its programme and thousands of its lectures to an online platform.?These are available to all prospective students all around the world at any time of the day. A growing range of course content is made available free of any charge to learners.? Other programmes of learning at MIT are available on the edX platform.?Regionally significant state universities such as the University of North Texas (UNT) also have a wide range of degree programmes available on online only platforms such as Coursera.
The example of the rapid spread of the global phenomena of the Amazon shopping platform suggests that the long run in the market for universities may be much shorter than previously considered. Purely online provision by universities in this context could potentially in theory lead very quickly to only a handful of globally omnipresent universities.
Spatial / Hybrid
A more sophisticated model places universities necessarily at the heart of the place in which they are physically located. Universities are an anchor institution alongside others such as other major employers permanently based in the same place e.g. large (immobile) firms, hospitals, municipal authorities etc.?
Graduates from these physically embedded universities provide a highly skilled workforce in response to the demands of employers. Student housing impacts directly on local property and housing markets. The university inevitably consumes resources (land, energy, food, water etc). Students, faculty and staff drive local demands for personal goods and services.?Academics in these institutions work with local firms to undertake research, drive innovation, develop new technologies and contribute towards higher productivity. Indeed, local firms articulate and drive demand for new research, and that research leads to new teaching and vice versa.
The hybrid model recognises these complex relationships and understands there are subject to forces much more complicated than simple laws of demand and supply, and are much more complex than the supposedly value free widespread adoption of technologies.
This model considers online provision by universities as only one part of a more complex program of delivery through mixed media. Some elements are provided online but the limited value of this medium is also recognised. A more necessary element of learning remains the importance of human interaction and learning from each other.?This requires online classes which can be taken at home, to be supplemented necessarily with in person tutorials and seminars. These can be taken on the university campus itself or in class rooms provided at the place of work by employers (or by universities).?It is a model which is spatial by definition.?
Example.?The University of North Texas has just completed a deal with Amazon to become a preferred supplier of higher education to permanent employees of that company as part of its Career Choice programme.?In theory this learning is made available free to charge to all 1.6 million permanent employees of that company around the globe. In practice, because of the practical reasons outlined above, the provision of the learning funded via this deal will be targeted especially to the 37,000 employees of that firm who live in the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex (city region) located near to the Denton campus of UNT.?More than half of the Amazon workforce who are likely to benefit from this programme are Black, Hispanic or Native American. Many are very likely to be the very first generation from their family to benefit form higher education.
This model is, of course, not new. The Open University delivered previously on radio and late night TV always involved both these physical and personal interactions. Many coal mines also had their own class rooms to teach young miners important aspects of mining engineering. These were instrumental in the formation of the Workers Educational Association.?But it is the sheer scale of the market that is now being opened up by integrating technology which now requires a new understanding.
领英推荐
Understanding the Internal and External Implications
Models are designed only to frame understanding and not to predict any, or a preferred, future scenario. But it is becoming clear that either model will or could have very profound internal and external implications which need to be better and more widely understood.
Potential implications internal to universities include:
Potential implications external to universities include:
Recommendation
There is little research yet published on either the internal or external implications for this very obvious disruption to the market but it is clear that these changes will not be bounded by borders.
It is recommended that a comprehensive programme of integrated and international collaborative research is commissioned on both a top/down and bottom/up basis is designed and then resourced.
The United States is certainly stronger in terms of its more extensive and capitalised use of these new technologies and capabilities within individual firms & universities. ?
Strengths in understanding the potential implications for the economic geography of local and regional communities, and on wider stakeholders and other anchor institutions can be found elsewhere, including in some English universities.
Ends
Kevin: it's long seemed to me that the false dichotomy between online and face-to-face modalities reflects an unhelpfully reductionist view of higher education, especially if it is to be viewed through the lens of lifetime career building. I have tried (without much success, it must be said) to propose a four-dimensional framework of higher level "formation", comprising knowledge acquisition, applicable competencies, developmental experiences and personal application. While the first of these lends itself to online and similar delivery modes, albeit ideally with human coaching, the others are essentially experiential and need at the least a high level f contextual learning and application. Potential employers of graduates,and indeed the personal success of individuals, surely depend much more on the second, third and fourth elements of my framework, especially since 'knowledge' or 'content' is freely available online without the need for controlled intermediation. If we could start talking about career-related or higher level 'formation', rather than just examinable 'knowledge' (as defined by the academy), we could have a much more open and innovative debate about models of HE.