The time has come to reform University and College education for at least some courses. The current system is:
• Costly- for universities and students
• It is inefficient of time- courses start late Sept and can finish end May. est 28 weeks
• Lecturers are often not trained teachers and focus on research
• There is no ‘agreement’ for the service ( eg contact time, marking assignments, help) provided to students
• Contact time can be as little as 10 hours per week
• Student loan interest is charged at 5.6% at a time when interest on savings is often as little as .1%
• Accommodation costs are charged for 11 months even though the university terms are cover c8 months
The impact of Covid has forced educational establishments of all types to provide their education in a different way. Many courses are being provided remotely. It has forced education professionals to become more skilled technically and for educational establishments to develop their technical and pupil support systems. I suggest that an Open University style format could be suitable for courses with no or little practical content and where specialist equipment is not required. They would be a combination of online learning with on campus sessions of say 2-4 weeks, 2-6 times a year.
This could:-
• Lower overheads for the university and costs for students
• Reduce the elapsed time of courses
• Be more available to remote UK and overseas students
• Be more available to people with life limiting conditions or when recovering from illness • Encourage universities to share their prepared online materials
• Create a new industry for exceptional online educational materials • Be adapted for employers to offer courses to employees
• Replace ‘day release’
• Be completed over different timescales, to suit the student
• Enable students to take paid work alongside the course
One of the benefits of the current system is that young people gain new experiences from living away from home and mingling with other students. Consideration should be given to how the benefits of this can be achieved in other ways.
There could be:
• Virtual clubs and associations
• Subject group forums/chat rooms
• Optional residential sessions with a combination of work and recreational activity.
• Opportunities to volunteer, maybe as a group eg in schools, hospitals, charities, sports organisations, armed forces. Maybe this or something similar should be obligatory
It might be that 6th form students would benefit from a similar approach for some of their time at school. It seems appropriate that this blended learning should remain school based for monitoring, mentoring and the social aspects of school.
Issues:
• Unions. Resistence to change
• Resistant to change in profession, especially the ancient universities
• Residential degree status v Remote degree status
• Development costs
• Re use and utilisation of University buildings and grounds
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