What is the higher education advantage?

We often celebrate the great advantage that education offers in transforming people’s lives. Higher education creates opportunity to pursue better paid jobs, form networks, and establish credentials at the start of working lives.

I know this only too well as a first in family to gain the advantage of a university degree. It allowed me to see the world, learn and share new knowledge, and to?connect with others who had similar advantages in life. I wish more in my family had been given this advantage, particularly my sister who was not streamed for an elite path through life at the age of 11 and had the significant disadvantage of being a gay woman.

I have worked at and watched universities thrive and strive to tell stories of what they are good at. They make a case for the prestige they hold in research, often through a number they have in a ranking, and what advantage this can give their students, while knowing full well they are unrelated. The main angle seems to be what advantages you can gain if you are lucky enough to get in.

If you can get in, you persevere by serving time in the face of what are becoming outdated experiences and models of learning.?The goal is to end up high enough on a bell curve, of assimilating knowledge that you have been given, and then played back to teachers. It has until now been universities' own content, purported to be drawing from research knowledge, and delivered entirely by their own staff, models and technologies. It is a model getting out of step with contemporary views of knowledge and skills.

As I look at the system now, I reflect on the plight of the many who are described as the dispossessed that cannot afford, don’t complete, incur debt for, and do not need or value the sort of research-based knowledge that comes from serving time in universities.

Without having this form of higher education advantage, the wider public now see universities as places that measure themselves on who they keep out and exclude, and that think their own research knowledge is the only form that is of value. The sentiment towards universities in the US has plummeted. This is also now reflected in how they are seen by governments and by the public elsewhere in the world.

Seeing this unfold, I reflect on how misguided my assumption has been, of the enduring value and advantage of the traditional higher education model. I don’t buy it anymore and I am not alone.

We need a new definition of advantage in higher education

A pandemic has been followed by an explosion of technology in AI that changes everything we assumed about knowledge, assessment and skills. I now see an emerging view that has changed from universities generating knowledge in their research and assessing how much their privileged few can show they have learnt, to a world more interested in skills, competence, what you can do, and what learning is good for.

When future historians write about the education industry in the early 21st century, they may debate which event caused more lasting disruption: the COVID-19 pandemic or the emergence of generative AI. The one point upon which a consensus might emerge is that both caught the educational establishment entirely unprepared - Peter Shea

Despite these shocks to the system, it appears that only universities are still more interested in what research they think they are good at, rather than student learning they are good for. George Williams reflects on this in taking the reins as Vice Chancellor at Western Sydney University . He believes social license is critical and building social cohesion with local communities is key to it. He talks about this in an ABC interview we refer to below.

Has the nature of the higher education advantage now changed forever? Has this happened through the reactions of what Chris Husbands calls the dispossessed, that do not know what universities are for, and therefore don’t believe in them? These are people who vote and governments listen to.

Sir Chris Husbands, who led 英国谢菲尔德哈莱姆大学 as Vice Chancellor and established the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK, was our recent podcast episode guest, making this point. He argued that universities need to avoid complacency in the face of change, and arrogance in the face of those outside of universities who now know more about learning and skills than we do. He reflects on his experience of walking around his campus

"trying to catch people out doing good stuff and hearing from staff about things that needed to change" - Sir Chris Husbands

He did this in trying to stay abreast of what was working and not working in higher education. He is now more optimistic than ever about the advantages that arise from learning and higher education but not about the current university model. He sees these issues at the heart of the four future scenarios for the future of higher education in England, that have lessons for leaders and their planning in other parts of the world.

The dichotomy in views between the system and its leaders

A dichotomy of views appears to have emerged. This is between practitioners following policy, and sometimes advocating for how we have always done things, and their leaders and innovators who may be exploring new models, or not. Those leaders that pursue any innovation, still require and mandate their staff to follow requests for regulatory compliance.

While some observe that current outputs from AI systems are like “bathwater”, several Vice Chancellors are about to appear on a public platform with our HEDx guests Paul J. LeBlanc and George Siemens to debate and define what an AI-first university would look like.

The resistance to AI in education is not truly about learning. It reflects a reluctance to re-evaluate the traditional roles of educators and to embrace the opportunities AI offers to enhance the learning experience. - Peter Shea

The essence of this dissonance, and need to change, is to move from a model of us all in universities restricting ourselves to believing we should own all content and own all the technology to deliver and share it. Higher education’s future advantage may well be in places that are able to curate global content, and work with global technology partners and others with expertise in learning and skills, in applying It to learning.

They may become better known for what they are good for in allowing all lifelong learners to gain skills and competences they need, not what research they are good at, and can persuade only the elite to sign up for. They might focus on being coaches to help learners ask the right questions and have the advantage of being able to do things, not sages expecting learners to throw back the right answers and not be supported in the process.

Moving to a definition of higher education advantage based on impact and skills

It’s a move from advantage gained from time-honoured progression at the places with the best research reputations, to advantage of demonstrating competency against skills needed in a continuously changing world of work, gained from places that offer the best learning support.

I saw a great example of this while in Singapore recently where Singapore Institute of Technology President Kee Chaing (KC) Chua and his colleagues are about to open a new Punggol campus, co-located with digital industries in a new precinct. Their approach to the place-based innovation which Professor Aleks Subic , Deborah L. Wince-Smith and others celebrate in the GFCC | The Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils is for industry to share in research and the delivery of skills in stackable up to date packages. These ensure research is relevant and impactful and workforces retain competence for fast changing workplace needs. SIT absents itself from rankings and conventional research metrics and celebrates being good at what industry and lifelong learners tell them they need instead.

The need for new future solutions in higher education

These transitions in the sector means that we need to find new future solutions for higher education and a new definition of higher education advantage. Some new solutions might follow the approach at SIT. All need to articulate a narrative more effectively to communities, the public and government.

Articulating a new narrative for research and learning is what has been behind the audacious, entrepreneurial and adaptive leadership that have typified what Noah Pickus and Bryan Penprase have documented in their case studies of 8 new global universities. These are reimagining global higher education and referenced below. David Rosowsky argues for a new narrative of university research as a public good in his recent work .

These future solutions, and new narratives to promote them, are becoming the focus for 11 universities signed up as members of HEDx.

They are also the focus of the 14 companies and organisations that will share their innovation, experience, perspectives and networks at our HEDx conference at 澳大利亚昆士兰大学 in October, now open for delegate registration and ticket sales .

Higher education has been a dream for many that aspired to gain an advantage in life through a transformational experience. It was unfortunately a dream restricted to some, rather than available to all. This is changing through technology and our expectations and needs as society.

The story of how Georgia State University used a focus on its purpose, and technology partnerships with others, to provide outstanding student and learning experiences that benefitted equity groups more than any others, will be a feature of a future podcast episode and provides inspiration to us all. As Andrew Gumbel describes it in his book:

“We won’t Lose This Dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System"

HEDx hasn't lost its dream of changing higher education for good either. We will continue to seek the best examples of new future solutions that help us define the advantages we need from higher education in the period ahead. We welcome feedback and further partners and collaborators in making that journey together, and defining and narrating the higher education advantage in new ways.

A spotlight on others

Our three podcast episodes this past month have drawn on various US, Australian and UK perspectives of global phenomena of change.

• Noah Pickus of Duke University and Bryan Penprase of Soka University share insights from their recent book The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century. It describes eight global case studies of new universities in North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Each have redefined the inherited ritual of what universities do. The book and episode provide lessons for leaders to challenge the conventional university model paradigm using intellectual courage, entrepreneurial audacity and adaptive leadership.
• Erin Morley is Education Editor of Campus Review and writes for a higher education staff audience about change and where it is heading. After a year in the role, and as the HEDx podcast approaches four years of continuous publication including on the Campus Review platform, Erin and I reflect on media and content providers' perspectives of the stories that currently matter. As HEDx and Campus Review increasingly turn to global leaders' ideas, we reflect on a need for new ideas and less parochial perspectives on the sector as it faces opportunities and changes ahead.
• Sir Chris Husbands is former Vice Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and the first Chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework. He recently published reports into future implications of generative AI and four scenarios for the future of higher education in England. He sees an acute need for leaders to listen to the dispossessed who miss out on higher education. He argues in this episode that complacency and arrogance leave us at risk of not rethinking a university model in acute need of change to embrace technology, evolve culture and engage communities if HE is to realise its true potential.

What we are reading and listening to

George Williams as new Vice Chancellor of Western Sydney University calls for a change of language in building social cohesion

"Universities have spent too much time talking about themselves" - George Williams VC of Western Sydney University

He argues that our focus needs to be on impactful research and on our students and we need to understand what they need to thrive. You can hear more in this interview on the ABC.

The resistance to AI in education isn't really about learning

This excellent article about the impact of AI on HE was drawn to my attention by colleague, friend, and dare I say fellow pirate, Michael Burgess . It illustrates the dissonance going on in how we variously treat the opportunity of AI in higher education and how history might judge our reactions to both it and the black swan of a pandemic. It argues we have long periods of establishing current practice and culture to overcome if we are to realise the benefits of transformation that AI can bring.

Four futures for higher education

Sir Chris Husbands wrote this report for the Higher Education Policy Institute in the UK, of how changes in long term affinity for and funding of universities that started in the global financial crisis, have reached a critical stage for UK universities to the point where significant long term scenario planning has become necessary. It is needed for the system as a whole and for individual institutions.

Won't lose this dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System

Andrew Gumbel is the author of a book telling the story of how Georgia State University (GSU) transformed its student support systems to align with a stronger sense of purpose that focused on ensuring student success for equity groups. It is a story of how GSU tore up the rulebook for educating lower-income students

?