Education is no longer what it used to be say 30 or 40 years ago. The rapid change in environment and context supported by digital explosion and changing expectations of Gen-Z generation students is causing a scenario where everything is changing every moment and things have become extremely complex and volatile. Like the corporate counterparts, the academic institutions in higher education space should appreciate the changes as well as challenges and proactively be “change agents” before being overflown. Identifying the drivers of change becomes critical in this context as that will determine the coping strategies and enable the institutions to be ready for anticipating some predictability amidst the waves of unpredictability.
Major Drivers that will Determine Future of Education in 21st Century:
The five major drivers are:
Leadership Agility: First and most critical driver will be leadership depth and focus in all levels of the academic institute. Quality of leadership will drive the vision, strategy, tactical maneuvers, and ability of the institute to charter an unknown & difficult path. Our experience has been that many leaders follow same strategy as they were accustomed to follow or documented in classical textbooks 5 decades ago that no more are relevant and useful resulting in the institutes becoming “one more institute” without a clear-cut “differentiation”. While this often results in “stuck in the middle” situation, this could also lead to slow decline in the quality standards and away from excellence. In this critical juncture, educational institutions need highly agile, focused, competent, and innovative leaders without which it might be difficult to achieve what we want to.
Quality of Faculty: The second but equally crucial driver is going to be the quality of faculty; an academic institution is known by the teachers and their excellence & inspiration in all areas including teaching, research, industry contact, mentoring of students and helping the institution to cross the bar. they are the bridge between the institute and the student community. In these challenging times, we need unique types of faculty: combination of an “ideal classroom teacher,” “known researcher,” “inspirational mentor,” “well-connected with industry”, “provider of leadership in all academic domains”. In real world, it may be difficult to find such an ideal teacher. But each modern institute that aims to march towards excellence must strive for the same.
Digital Leadership: The third crucial driver that will help an institute to go ahead in this ultra-competitive scenario is the type of “digital experience” the institute is providing to all stakeholders: both internal and external. Evry world class institute has today a “seamless digital exposure” particularly to students starting from admission to academic delivery to outbound journey (including placements). An integrated ERP (including LMS) from beginning to end is must which involves digitization of all processes. The institutions should also try to move towards AI driven education systems / poetesses and AR / VR enabled experience bound learning mechanism. What finally it means is that the students must be provided with a “delighted digital experience” while they are at the campus.
Entrepreneurial Mindset: The fourth and one of the most important drivers is the possession of entrepreneurial mindset at all levels of the institution. The institute must be agile, look for innovations, try to take calculated risks, and develop the shock absorption capacity in case of any failure. Entrepreneurship should be core philosophy of an excellent institution in today’s time, and it should also teach the students how to become “entrepreneur” or at least “intrapreneur” as an attitude. As the world is changing and so will the current skills / competencies; only an entrepreneurial person can charter any unexpected path in life and this spirit should be taught at college level itself so that the students fully possessed with “life skills” can overcome any challenge in life, however unexpected it might be.
Brand Visibility: And the final and the most important driver is going to be how you are felt and perceived in the marketplace; you may be great, offering great services including fantastic employability skills, but if the market does not know it, it is of no use. And in today’s world, any such information is available at tip of finger: ask a question to ChatGPT or any other AI tool how it feels about the institute in terms of its physical and academic ambience, the answer is in a few seconds. If we do not get a good review, all the good work done by us may not be of any use. Each institution in this highly competitive world, therefore, must learn the tricks of market visibility through AI platforms and move much beyond tradition SEO, etc.
Final Words:
It is an era that is highly unpredictable and volatile; and the academic institutions in the higher education space have to possess the capabilities to move forward overcoming these challenges. The drivers discussed above may be of some help; however, the fact is that we need to be really quick and agile if we are to remain in race.
By Dr A K Sen Gupta, Founder, Higher Education Forum (HEF). He may be contacted at aksengupta51@gmail.com and /or 98211 28103.
