Policy & ReformTop Story
New EY report predicts ‘the death of the campus’ and a sector that must adapt quickly
A number of serious predictions about Australia’s higher education sector have just been released in a report by EY, formerly Ernst and Young.
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What a depressing prospect. My teaching is all about non-commercial topics, as it is for so many in the social sciences and humanities. The entire field I am in is about checking the power of corporations and governments to abuse natural resources and the less vulnerable [political ecology]. Profoundly anti-capitalist. These is a valid area for activists and advocates, in Australia and beyond, so let’s hope that sector, at least, still wants us. Personally I am flooded with students. But the government or corporations are not going to be paying their fees, the way things are going. ‘Research commercialisation’ means nothing. Nothing to commercialise. Never will be.
I also think the death of the campus is sensationalist and premature. Not everybody is interested in screen based learning, largely from home, as the current pandemic shows.
Thanks for your reply, Simon. As an Arts grad, I still want access to social science and humanities subjects for the generations of the future to keep those in power to account, to unpack the discourses, practices and institutions that subjugate the less fortunate. However, with dwindling international student numbers, research commercialisation has gathered taction as a revenue stream. Whether that will turn out to be true, is questionable. Wade, Education Editor,
I teach in health sciences where communication skills are essential. Cannot learn communication skills from a computer.
What happened to Universities as places of debate, opening learning horizons and exploring new ideas and opportunities?
Thankfully they still have to attend campus for skills based activities.
Roma
More and more, Universities are being driven by corporate-style thinking where the only valued outcome is the financial bottom line. It is a sad world when we have forgotten the spectrum of other social and individual outcomes that Universities have historically provided.
Maybe this model might work for people studying business degrees or other similar courses, but would anyone really be happy to learn that their medical practitioner, psychologist, nurse, teacher, dentist, etc. had been educated in a predominantly online course? Some professions require on campus education, and can’t be shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all online model.
My first degree was a history major, which has never earned me a cent, and likely never will. But I am a better citizen, and better-educated voter as a result of this education. I remember robust debates with classmates. I remember arriving early to lectures and chatting with classmates about the previous lecture/tutorial. I remember heading to the University bar after lectures, forging relationships with my peers, and discussing what we were learning. I remember approaching the lecturer and chatting during the lecture breaks. Are our students expected to now achieve the same things in online discussion boards, or by emailing random_lecturer_ive_never_seen@univer$ity.com.au?
This is nearsighted, corporate, economic rationalist thinking that cripples Universities, and diminishes us as a nation.