The future of university education

Since the first university was founded in 1088, higher education has metamorphosed. Through digitalisation, personalisation of curricula and new demands from the employment market. The covid pandemic accelerated these developments. ‘I feel the covid pandemic caused a major shift in how we perceive education and the way it should be offered’, says Dirk Van Damme, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Curriculum Redesign (Boston, MA, USA) and Dies Natalis keynote speaker.

What trends do you see in the domain of education innovation?

Van Damme: ‘The classical patterns where you enrol at a university when you are eighteen, study for four to five years, after which you enter the employment market, is changing. If someone drops out, we consider that a failure, but it doesn’t have to be. There is an increase in alternative trajectories, where people start working first and study later. However, our educational system is not designed for this, and integrating adults into education is challenging. In this respect, the Netherlands and Belgium are behind compared to the rest of Europe.’

Mol: ‘The university landscape is changing significantly and becoming increasingly global. Moreover, there is a growing number of private education institutes. And lifelong learning is a concept firmly rooted within our society. New tools such as virtual reality enter education, and challenge-based education also gains momentum. This approach has students work on solutions for all manner of current challenges. Consider, for example, our successful student challenges.’ 

What significant challenges does higher education face?

Mol: ‘Considerable investments are needed in the digital infrastructure, but also in new didactics. New teaching methods require different expertise and skills. Moreover, while the demand for more personalised education increases, there is also an opposite trend towards more accessible, large-scale education (MOOCs). This is not a matter of either/or, but of and/and. Investments are needed in both directions. And another pressing issue is how we can ensure a proper link between primary and secondary education and the university.’

Van Damme: ‘The employment market is less focused on degrees. Large businesses, such as consultancy agencies, do their own skill-assessments and no longer consider a degree a guarantee that a candidate has the competencies they consider relevant, such as problem-solving skills, critical thinking and creativity. Research shows that job descriptions now include generic competencies more often and demand specific degrees less. Higher education strives to match the demands of the employment market, but that develops so rapidly that universities often lag as change at universities is inherently slower: you can’t change a curriculum overnight. There is also a trend for in-company education, which seldomly includes a university. I also think universities don’t defend their interests enough in that respect.’

In light of these trends, how do you envision the future of universities?

Van Damme: ‘Many people have a romantic perspective on what a university ought to be. A place where a professor works intensively with a small group of students. That concept has eroded by the increase in scale. I don’t think universities will disappear, as they have withstood more severe storms in the past. But there are creeping developments that put universities under pressure, such as the devaluation of degrees. Universities will have to adapt and accept that some historical values no longer hold.’

Mol: ‘There is an increasing number of digital tools that are deployed not only during lectures but also during practicals and field trips. Virtual reality and augmented reality are standard. However, meeting people is still an essential part of studying and education. The campus will continue to play a vital role, as will teachers with their inspiring stories. The same applies to lectures: face-to-face-education will always play an important role.’

Immagine it is 2030. In what significant way will education have changed compared to today?

Mol: ‘Everything is becoming more flexible. Programmes will be less standardised; students no longer complete their entire programme at a single university and can design their own trajectory. Following courses at different universities as part of your programme will become easier. “Blended learning” will become the standard. A mix between online and face-to-face education.’

Van Damme: ‘I think that the aforementioned trends will continue. I doubt that the percentage of people choosing to follow university education will increase further because more alternatives will be available. Moreover, I expect a wider range of ages and work methods will be available. Partly studying from home, partly on the campus, increased combinations of work and study. The link between a degree and a profession becomes less fixed. Some forty per cent of the working population is currently employed in a field that differs from their study domain. That percentage will increase. Professions and the required skills change rapidly.’

Has the Covid pandemic affected specific innovations?

Van Damme: ‘I feel covid has caused a seismic shift in the way we perceive education and in the way it is offered. Face-to-face education will certainly return, but never for the full one-hundred per cent. There will be a stronger integration of digital distance education into regular education. This would not have happened without covid, as universities are inherently slow to develop and wary of innovations. I do not mean this in a negative way. Careful consideration is prudent. I do believe that Covid accelerated the process that would otherwise not have developed to this extent.’

Mol: ‘It certainly played a role, but we were already working on a future perspective for education before the pandemic. A working group gathered these perspectives in three scenarios that form the basis for WUR’s Strategic Plan. However, we are now four years further down the road, and there are many new possibilities.’