Universities, Technology, & Industry: How Can Higher Ed Keep Up?
There are two ways to ride a roller coaster. One is to shut your eyes and let the static track have its way with you while you cringe in fear and dread. The other is to throw your hands up, open your eyes, and take in as much of the experience as possible. We are currently on a roller coaster and technology is the wind hitting our faces, the trees flying by, and the sky and ground swapping places. It is disorienting and impossible to keep up, but we all have to keep our eyes open because this ride isn’t ending anytime soon.
My area of expertise is higher education, which is arguably one of the fields that is having the most difficult time maintaining relevance in a society at the mercy of Moore’s Law. In my twelve year career, I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with academia. You see, I absolutely LOVE learning, research, and the incredible growth I’ve seen in the thousands of students I’ve worked with over the years. But (and this is a big one) I’m an innovator, a radical thinker, and an entrepreneur. I often butt heads with bureaucracy and institutional barriers. I’ve seen students suffer at the hands of giant egos and the application of outdated ‘rules’ that no longer serve students or the administration.
It is no secret that colleges and universities are under fire to prove their worth. While I agree that universities have a lot of work to do to stay relevant, I also believe that looking at college from a purely economic lens is dangerous and it would be a mistake to try and somehow mold higher education institutions to fit changing industry needs. We all know universities move at a snail’s pace and by the time universities change to meet industry needs, the needs of industry will have already shifted. So, what’s the solution here?
Curriculum + Experience = Prepared graduates
First, keep the university curriculum rooted in the fundamentals so students leave with the ability to think critically, articulate themselves in written form, and be agile as the world (and technology) unfolds.
This Times Higher Education article by former Bath Spa University Vice Chancellor, Christina Slade nails it:
…this does not mean that we have a list of creative professions — advertising, for example — for which we train our students. It is a more complex set of graduate attributes we hope to engender: critical and creative thinking skills, global awareness, digital literacy.
Second, universities need to provide students the opportunity for practical application of their learning. I’ve seen this done successfully first hand at Emerson College in Boston by Professor Randy Harrison in his “Inbound in the Integrated Marketing Framework” course.
In collaboration with HubSpot’s Education Partner Program, upperclass students apply their learning in a real client partnership. Along with the experience, students gain two very practical certifications in their field: Inbound Marketing and HubSpot Marketing Software Certifications. In fall 2017, I had the pleasure of being the client for this innovative course and saw firsthand how powerful the model was for students.
As Randy puts it in the HubSpot Teacher’s Lounge podcast,
This is the deep end of the pool stuff and we [professors] are the lifeguards…. I’ve done it enough to know that it works every time… When students walk out of the classroom, you see the changes both internally and externally…. Many of them walk in as students expecting things to be handed to them and they walk out as young professionals and A-Players.
Universities need to change, but not in the way you might think.
As technological advances continue to multiply at an exponential pace, universities must study and collaborate with industry to stay relevant. For students, work integrated learning is a key piece of the puzzle. It is also important to have practitioners working alongside researchers and for students to tap into expertise from both inside and outside the ivory tower.
Universities stay relevant by bridging the gap.
In order to keep up, college graduates need to be agile and prepare for jobs that don’t even exist yet. How the heck do they do that? Prepare them to throw their hands up, open their eyes, and take in as much of the experience as possible.
