How COVID Could Kill Off Universities
Many are ‘passing’ on the thought of £50k Zoom calls
I got my University results today. Four years of hard work, doing things I thought I couldn’t do — over and over again. It’s been immensely valuable and will hopefully get me the job I’m after. But I can’t help thinking, that I may be one of the last to do this university thing, in its current state — anyway.
Coronavirus has thrown a spanner into the works of almost everything. It has exposed some of the excesses in our lives, when stepping out of your home is a risk, it puts a filter on everything you do.
I’ve noticed that my life is better without fast-food, filling every evening with social gatherings isn’t necessary and a daily trip to Starbucks is entirely superfluous.
I can’t help but think that Universities are going to be one of the big institutions to fall. A bit like Blockbuster in the digital age — too big and slow-moving to keep up.
Just today, the BBC reported that “up to 13 Universities could go bust without bail-out” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Paying £50k for Zoom Calls
Firstly, University is so much more than the teaching. I have learnt more life lessons here than I could shake a stick at — but I think a lot of this comes from the independence; which you can get anywhere.
It’s the piece of paper that you go there for. The value comes from the accreditation more than the learning. All so that employers can gauge your level of competence in a field easily.
We know that online learning works. No, not the e-learning junk that employers seem to think works — but the rich information that is well delivered on platforms like YouTube, Skillshare etc.
Jordan Peterson lectures Psychology at Harvard and the University of Toronto. Probably to about 1000 students at most. Recently, he put his lectures and teachings on YouTube. They aren’t high production value, but taken his channel to nearly 3 million subscribers and have been watched 155 million times.
A study by Harvard and MIT says: “these [online] classes really can teach at least as effective as traditional classroom courses — this is true regardless of how much preparation and knowledge students start out with”.
If I were in the place of A-Levels students this year, I’m pretty sure I would put off Uni for at least a year. Now, more than ever, employers are looking at what you do with your spare time more than your degree.
You can better gauge the attitude and drive of a person by what they do by choice than what they are obligated to do
Taking time out would give the perfect opportunity to learn valuable life skills. Take an internship, an industrial placement, start a small business etc. I wrote about the immense value I found in my pre-university placement here.
The struggle for employers
Accreditations are valuable because we place value on them. Yes, online courses seem to get dismissed by employers at the moment but with more cropping up and less in-person University teaching, the better ones will gain value.
High production value, purpose-built online course sure are going to do a better job than a remote lecture from a traditional university.
Some of the lecturers at my Uni couldn’t use a projector- let alone design an effective online exam.
But what are employers going to do? In the infancy of this phase of higher-education, what do they do to understand who is the best candidate? I say, base it on an interview and some sort of interview exam.
It’s already happening, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: “on average one-third of companies use assessment centres as a method to select applicants”.
They say that assessment centres are far more accurate than traditional interview techniques, allow objectivity and compliment organisations diversity policies.
Students need to learn to show up every day
A common counter-argument is that University prepares you for work by measuring attendance, ‘if you can’t show up to University every day, you won’t survive in work’.
For me, that argument doesn’t add up. Being self-driven and hard-working requires discipline. Working remote, from your bedroom, with all the distractions that come with that surely show better discipline than working whilst sat between four beige walls in some old university building.
The State of Telecommuting in the U.S show that remote working has increased 115% in a year, expecting up to a third of people working remotely within the decade. If we’re going to be working remotely, why not study remotely?
Learning the ability to learn
You could argue that rather than specific knowledge, the most important skill universities teach is the skill of learning. The ability to find information, weigh up conflicting research and back up your findings. I certainly found that, in a subject where I was solely responsible for researching and creating a piece of work, I was more invested, harder working, better motivated and it cultivated better understanding.
Ask me about my dissertation, or a module from third year — I know which I could better explain.
Having remote working, with more self-driven study, is a good thing in my eyes. Pushing understanding over memorising. More open book exams, to better reflect the working environment. Losing the in-person learning, written exams and university environment might not be such a bad thing.
What about practical aspects?
This probably the biggest hole in online learning. For engineering, sciences, arts etc, proximity to university equipment and other students is important.
However, in the four years I spent at university, you could condense the in-person learning down to a couple of weeks. Intensive courses to replace these lab sessions, would have exactly the same learning experience.
Universities aren’t finished, though
This is the perfect opportunity for Universities to redefine themselves. Invest in online content, even consider making it free! Open sharing of information will further understanding, for everyone — just charge for the exam and accreditation.
You may potentially lose more to dropouts, but this could even further increase the value of the accreditation for those that complete it.
You would also be able to reduce costs. You’re removing the geography from the equation, opening opportunities to more student worldwide and will allow those that do it well — to further their reputation in university standings.
It’s going to be interesting to see which universities reinvent themselves and adapt. In the digital age, Netflix reinvented themselves and Blockbuster didn’t. We all know how that ended, it’s certainly not Blockbuster that’s worth nearly $200 billion.
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