Yesterday, I sat in on a SXSW Interactive panel about education and the future of the university. A pair of professors form the Miami University of Ohio talked about how the traditional University is dying and gave tips and hints as to how the role of the university is changing. Glenn Platt, @glennplatt, professor from Miami University Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies and Peg Faimon, @pegfaimon, of the Miami University Design Collaborative, addressed the purpose of higher education today, why traditional universities are collapsing, who is going to pick up the pieces and how. The panel shared six directions the university should keep in mind for surviving in 2010 and beyond.
The Purpose of Higher Education In 2010
- Research
In the past, the university was known for serious sponsored research and academic publications. Today, the university must be known original discovery and experimentation. Higher education should build research foundations for individual student research and inquiry. - Creating Knowledge
Students of today create products and concepts. Educators should urge them to also develop solutions to existing challenges. - Developing the Person
The role of the university extends beyond academics, stretching into a students whole life. The university now should be actively involved in molding and shaping students’ body, spirit and soul. - Contribution
Students contribute to society and the world while then are enrolled in school and once they leave to enter the real world. - Acting as a Signal
Ultimately, where a student attended school, or the quality and credibility of a higher education institution signals to society the quality of the graduate. - Seeding Innovation
In the past, it was primarily up to technical schools and engineers to discover, innovate and create. Today, every discipline will need to examine ways to push ahead to the future.
How does your university measure up? Are you giving back to the community and preparing students for the future? Are educators really seeding innovation? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Additional Information
Links: tinyurl.com/sxsw2010edlinks and Slides: tinyurl.com/sxsw2010edslides
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To my mind, any discussion about higher education’s past and future should at least mention Louis Menand’s The Marketplace of Ideas, which I discuss at the link. He describes how universities got to where they are today, the requirements for general education, and why there is a glut of PhDs due to an oversupply that’s created by institutional forces.
The biggest problem I see with the list of higher education purposes in 2010 is that while no one would disagree with them, moving from broad generalities to specifics is going to be hard. Who would be against this:
Probably no one. But how does one translate that ideal into an era of budget cuts, 500-person lecture hall classes, and online vocational education? The gap between ideal and practice seems as wide as ever.