our higher education system - our future
TRANSCRIPT
Stephen Murgatroyd, PhD FBPsS FRSAChief Innovation Officer Contact North | Contact Nord
Our Higher Education System, Our Future
Equity, Innovation,
Change
Beyond Diversity: Learning and Working in an Inclusive World
Do We Really Understand Our Challenges?Top Ten Challenges
Challenges from Outside
❖ Austerity as the new reality of Governments
❖ The demand for relevance and tangible outcomes
❖ The focus on STEM as a response to the future
❖ A demand for more access rather than better quality - and the assumption that you can have both
❖ Private capital and globalization
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Challenges from Inside❖ “Procedural fetishism” of the modern college
and university (Peter McKinnon, 2007) - paralysis by analysis and process.
❖ The trade off’s between quality and innovation - settled largely in favour of gradualism and mimicry.
❖ The pursuit of brand and status (a.k.a funding security)
❖ Resistance to technology and open educational resources.
❖ Fear of unbundling 5
Five Big Distractions
❖ Rankings and league tables – "PISA for grown up’s"
❖ MOOC’s which are not strategic
❖ The hunt for the holy grail of becoming an international hub and centre of excellence
❖ Claiming that university research is the engine of diversification and innovation
❖ Technology is “the answer”
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What We Should Focus On..
The Three Really Big Issues
What Are We Really Supposed to Be Doing?
1. The development of highly qualified people who have social impact
2. Being agents of community resilience and development
3. Making a difference through evidence, capacity building and knowing how to learn - being the critical-reflective knowledge hub
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Challenge 1: How Do We Develop..
HQP who Have Social Impact
Why This is Important
❖ Society needs more knowledge “smart” but also “street” smart, nimble minded self-managing learners who can make a difference and engage in effective change management
❖ Society needs more First Nations, single parents, recent arrivals, at risk youth and, in some fields, males to engage in advanced learning to advance them and those they represent
❖ Communities need leadership and engaged citizens who are knowledgeable, effective communicators and can actively promote non-formal and formal learning
❖ Education needs to be more about engendering commitment to change through knowledge and understanding and less about mastering a body of “content”
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What We Need to Do
❖ More co-operative programs, more internships and a requirement for social contribution for more students in more programs
❖ More focus on the idea of the “communiversity” and less on rankings and brand-status
❖ More focus on the D&D in R&D&D❖ More investment in social and environmental capital❖ More focus on the individual as learner than on “batch”
learning and large class size - requiring pedagogic innovation and high levels of student engagement
❖ More varied forms of assessment to focus more on outcomes and impact
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Challenge 2: How do We Develop
Community Resilience Through Community Development
Why This is Important❖ Universities and colleges are community hubs for
innovation, change and development - they are also knowledge hubs and they belong to their communities
❖ Universities and colleges are sustained by their local communities - we need to feel an obligation to sustain our communities
❖ Universities are anchors in the business and social innovation “clusters”in their communities and regions - they should do this work consciously and with commitment
❖ Universities and colleges know how to process knowledge and evaluate choices - we should build the capacity of communities to develop these (and other related) competencies
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What We Need to Do❖ Stop thinking of our work in knowledge silos, or just in
terms of programs and courses - start thinking of it in terms of building social capital and capabilities.
❖ Require every student to engage in a community focused research study / project that seeks to have social impact and transfers skills / competencies to others
❖ Engage in more cross-boundary learning.
❖ Promote strategic foresight around social, environmental and health issues.
❖ Let more community members teach and open access to learning for more members of our communities - systematically make a difference for under-represented groups.
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Challenge 3: How do we Develop..
As a Critical Reflective Hub for our Communities
Why This is Important❖ Universities and colleges are powerful hubs in local,
regional and international knowledge and performance clusters - yet we create barriers to accessing knowledge, skills and learning.
❖ Life-long learning is the real role of our work - courses and programs are “teasers” and “competency building” for this real work.
❖ Economic diversification, building powerful and effective health, education and social networks, reducing crime and building vibrant communities requires design work, execution and evaluation - we know how to do this.
❖ When we put our minds to it, we are actually good at this work - look at the work we have done building Canada’s oil and gas sector, our effective work on building world-class K-12 education…we have played key roles.
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What we Need to Do❖ Build strong strategic foresight capabilities linked to
regional challenges / opportunities.
❖ Develop the skills and competencies of designing social networks and effective social enterprises.
❖ Harness the power of philanthropy, social enterprise and business / government to focus on a narrow range of opportunities to build jurisdictional advantage and community resilience.
❖ Align significant resources around these possibilities.
❖ Commit to medium and long-term knowledge, learning and innovation investments to build self-directing clusters and build their capacities for impact and sustainability.
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What Should be Our Ambitions?
If We Do This, What Will Happen?
The Impact We Can Have
❖ Less social and income inequality in society and more social mobility.
❖ More social and community engagement.
❖ More learning more of the time by more people.
❖ More engagement between our institutions and a broader range of people, groups and communities.
❖ Less demands for accountability and relevance and a stronger focus on outcomes and impacts.