Why now?

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world was facing what commentators described as a “massive, long term disruption cycle” — one which Higher Education as it previously stood would not have been able to withstand. A recent study by Duke Corporate Education (O’Driscoll & Bleak, 2013) stated “be comfortable with being uncomfortable. The known, mostly predictable, rhythms associated with universities of the past 100 years have given way to syncopation caused by two off-beat troublemakers: technological change and cost pressures”. In Ireland, the Higher Education system faces chronic funding shortages, increased expectations of ‘value for money’ from students and the rising pressures of New Managerialism metrics. In addition, disruptive change from technology companies such as Google, Coursera and Lambda present further challenge to the traditional Higher Education space.

What underpins all these challenges, new and old, is Higher Education’s more fundamental reckoning with what it is and what it serves in the modern era. The Covid-19 crisis shines a light on the cracks in the HE system as it currently exists and may not prepare future graduates to tackle the types of challenges which the 21st century will inevitably consist of. The areas of the Higher Education system which have faced the most pressure during the Covid-19 restrictions point to parts of the system that can be reimagined and redesigned to better respond to the needs of the society that will re-emerge following this pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis has intensified the appetite and receptivity for change in Higher Education. It has demonstrated that change is possible. In March 2020, universities moved teaching and learning modules to remote and online platforms reasonably successfully. This unprecedented and unexpected change would have taken decades under normal circumstances. While these stop-gap solutions fulfilled the needs of Higher Education to ensure that the academic semester was completed and students were able to finish their respective studies, it is now crucial that we take this opportunity to examine how to reimagine and reshape the system to better suit the needs of all stakeholders and ensure sustainability and progress going forward. At this critical time, we must ensure that we are identifying and tackling “the right problems” and not hastily implementing the wrong things well (Vaugh & Ryan, 2015).

In Chinese, the word for crisis is depicted in two symbols: danger and multiple possibilities. Hannah Arendt writes in The Crisis of Education about “the opportunity, provided by the very fact of crisis — which tears away facades and obliterates prejudices — to explore and inquire into whatever has been laid bare of the essence of the matter.” Perhaps now the Covid-19 crisis is HE’s golden opportunity to not just adapt but to radically reimagine.

We at Mi:Lab want to be part of this solution.

The Mi:Lab principles are relevant and necessary, despite being created prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. They offer a broad approach to innovation and enquiry during this disruptive time. We can enhance and improve the higher education experience for students and staff. We propose that design thinking offers a new, accessible and effective approach. In turn, this can enable the higher education community to combine empathy and creativity by tackling the challenges that exist, through innovative ways of doing.