The Future of the University

CONFERENZA DELLA RETE PASCAL

Giuseppe Ronsisvalle – University of Catania

October 7, 2015 – Catania - Aula Magna del Rettorato

TELEOPATHY

• Teleopathy is the «unbalanced pursuit of objectives» (see Kenneth Goodpaster in University Business, 2007)

Universities suffer Teleopathy

Universities DECLARE to design their own curricula to train students, to develop their critical thinking, their capability to innovate and so on.• Do they do that?• Do they manage training activities in that way?• Do they support professors and staff in order to

continuously innovate training, adapt learning environment, create a learning community, and so on?

TELEOPATHY

• Are academic policies and guidelines frequently monitored in their efficacy, improved to an integral, living part of the regional learning community

• Or are just approved documents to be post in the web site to be showed to ranking agencies and evaluation organizations?

The «unbalanced pursuit of objectives»

Is UPO reflected in the Mission?

The Mission is becoming too wide and based on too many pillars

(and pillars increase after each BFUG meeting or relevant interministerial meeting)

At the beginning UNIVERSITAS was referred to the complex of sciences and

disciplines

… now means also several different targets and missions:a. Training young people and adults of all professions (CPD, LLL …);

b. Training for research in the interest of the region but also of the country and to prepare to work in a global environment;

c. Training in generic skills, soft skills, practical skills, employability-relevant skills, skills to change career over time …;

d. Training to prepare leaders but also to work in a peer international team;

e. Training to give basic knowledge and entrepreneurial competences;

f. Training professors and tutors;

g. Training to access different Master and PhD courses.

For professors this means …

i. They should run research of international level BUT also in the interest of local enterprises;

ii. They should be in the morning mentor, then tutor, then conference men, then Dean, in the afternoon expert in EU protocols, in funding GL, expert in accreditation, in national laws, organizer of meeting, host startuppers to meet students, talking with ICT tech’s and, before dinner time, attend a meeting of the learning community team.

For a student this means …

… to learn everything in about 1500 h/y• Studying alone, in a group, in a library, in a lab,

going to a stage, in ERASMUS mobility, write a thesis, meet the mentor, pass exams.

• Going to the pub, eat and sleep and• be prepared for future re-training and be able to

learn and to innovate and launch a start-up co.

For sure, he/she will become a critical thinker!

CAN A STUDENT BE TRAINED IN THREE YEARS TO LEARN ALL THOSE THINGS?

Can an individual professor do in a proper way all those things?

Implicit consequence

Quality of the whole performance is in any case very low and still going down.

Consequence #1: for public opinion, universities are not efficient

Consequence #2: most professors do not understand what is better, what his/her university want, why is not trained for all those things, is not incentivized, informed about trends, what is better for her/his career, …

Consequence #3: Most professors wait the retirement, governments go from a generational change to the other hoping that something will happen to solve problems and safe money.

Consequence #4: Most students would have chosen a different course and/or a different university or suddenly stop studying and start working.

GLOBAL SCENARIO

HEIs must change!

QUALITY EDUCATION and/or EMPLOYABILITY Increase efficacy of T&L Change attitude of students and professors toward entrepreneurship

The good news: The university buildings will continue to exist.

The bad news: Traditional teaching is ending. Students will get information and teaching material from other sources

(John Hennessey, Stanford University)

Widening U stakeholders strategic partnership (Allen Gibb, Oxford U)

Universities are challenged by a number of voices with different specific demands:

a. The so-called (elusive) public voice

b. The voice of competitors

c. The community voice

d. The business voice

e. The technology voice

f. The students (and their families) voice

In this cacophony of claims, U usually answer to one at a time and in a small way

Gibb lists several old and new stakeholders:• Research founders (local, national, international)• Students and parents, and alumni• International agencies, EU and non-EU related• Accrediting agencies• Local and community organizations, associations and NGOs• Media• Business• Academic competitors - national and international, public and

private, off-shore and franchising U• Faculties and Departments• Staff

Professor Gibb proposes that:

• Universities should reflect on its own historical specificities and based on that rethink its role in creation and delivering of knowledge

• Universities should accept the request of more autonomy by the students and professors.

Students will ask…

• To not follow proposed syllabus and ask for personalized curricula;

• To dedicate contact hours to explain learning process in different disciplines;

• To be trained with experiential learning;• To learn how to manage stages and training times;• To attend conferences of success start-uppers (TED

conferences);• To solve professional cases with professionals in

the classroom and with professors in an inter-disciplinary way;

• …

U and U professors should accept the request of more autonomy:

• Flipped class room, with lectures mostly delivered online with the professor acting as a mentor or as a coach;

• Pedagogical innovation and diversification to account ICT delivery and in-class teaching;

• Entrepreneurial education in science and in engineering curricula;• Strong partnership with business world;• Global curricula based on international networks with different

universities for different curricula (with off-shore location and/or in franchising)

• Totally new institutional configuration with great flexibility, structured on target and based on principles of great accountability

• …

How can U put into actions new learning modes?

Different kind of professors and structures are required for different pedagogical approach (and for traditional vs. tech- oriented training)!• The world is changing very fast!• In 2005-10 universities started offering free online education;• After 2010 several hundred thousands of students from near 200 countries

are enrolled and thousands of them are graduated;• Several platforms for open education are set: Cousera, Georgia Tech

Udacity, NovoEd, AT&T online MSc Degree in CS• Mozilla Open Badges try to solve the problem of distance assessment and

recognition;• Minerva project exemplifies a multi-national University based in different

campuses around the world• Kepler (Generation Rwanda) gives an accredited degree for a tuition fee of

only US$ 1,000/ye.

What to change! M Ranga, Stanford U

• Education delivery modes• Education actors’ role• Education outcomes• University business modes• University role in the local ecosystem• Inter-university global competitiveness

Delivery modes

• Courses will be flexible enough to be tailored for small groups of students (LLL-like) and National laws will allow;

• For groups of students with different interest, background and attitudes.

• Assessment will evaluate progresses keeping in account different approaches (i.e. in flipped classroom);

• Assessment will carefully evaluate generic skills not only in professional disciplines;

• Attitude in entrepreneurial activity will be embedded in training with ad-hoc trained professors and professionals;

Edu outcomes

• Students will prepare its own syllabus ONLY based on a general frame set by the professor;

• Professors will approve the syllabus and coach the students;

• Professors will organize teaching in strict collaboration with professionals and other stakeholders;

• Collaboration with industries will be embedded in the curriculum;

• Professors will be trained to develop collaborative and mobile learning;

Edu actors’ role

• Laboratory activities, experiential learning activities and other educational activities will be video-recorded and students will experience virtual professional practice.

• Flipped classrooms teaching and traditional teaching will be video-recorded and analysed, and diffused as a MOOC or stored in data banks in the ‘library’.

• Synchronous and asynchronous and blended learning will be further developed using social and involving inter-disciplinary professorship.

U role in the local ecosystem

Universities will play a Leading cultural role• To force politicians to study trends, to

support innovation, educational innovation and technological innovation.

• To increase intercultural dialogue and social cohesion.

• To create Learning Regions.

To do that …

• Universities will have Literacy of Information and Media worlds;

• Will evaluate info, new ideas, new laws in real time and will inform the society (i.e. consequences of Ttp, Ttip, environmental issues, sustainability of a political or an economic decision)

Innovation will be further accelerated

• In the next few academic years, MOOCs will be further developed at the global level

• In 3-5 years, education will be Gamificated on iPad staring from the school level

• In 4-5 years,3D printing and wearable technologies will be available and used in the classroom and in lab (and unfortunately during assessment!)

• Universities and Network of universities will further increase system research

• Franchising and off-shore universities will be based in most countries

• International evaluation and rankings will be mostly based on generic skills rather than on professional skills

• Ranking will be finalized to rank countries for their work-force potential, mainly based on the efficacy of training (AHELO)

• Key skills will get also relevance such as intercultural dialogue, democratic citizenship and social cohesion will be embedded in the curricula

Which University will survive?

• Those whose governance will accept innovation, encourage best practices, develop flexible structures (fit-for-purposes) and innovative teaching modes;

• Those that will be ready, when economy declines, to up-skill professionals offering on-line and live supply of new skills to unemployed people and experiential learning to those who have to change job.

• Those who are ready to offer massive courses to supply more graduated when the economy improves.

• Those who create centres for advanced study to analyse trends in a globalized society, thus being able to forecast future demand of skills

• Those who incentivize departments to study how to embed soft and entrepreneurial skills in curricula.

• Those who will collaborate with schools to innovate in the education of essential skills for life and who will support the growth of the region running research in learning in a very early age (3-6 ye).

• Those who will offer open access courses recognising prior learning and will accept competition based on quality with other institutions including franchising Universities.

That’s all folks!

GOD BLESS UNIVERSITY

Thank you and enjoy your stay in Catania!