VIEWS & OPINION
Silver lining: Covid-19 has accelerated the changes that Higher Education will benefit from long-term
Comment by ANDREW SUMMERILL, Global Head of Payments at Western Union
As governments across the globe embark on their strategies for easing pandemic restrictions, attention has understandably turned to the long-term ramifications of COVID-19. The higher education sector was among the first and hardest hit by the pandemic - from college campuses closing to prevent the spread of the virus, to borders shutting meaning international students have been stranded abroad. While they’ve been left with no choice but to adapt – many of the changes they have implemented will likely form a new way of thinking for higher education in the future.
Importantly, the decisions universities are being forced to take today
due to COVID-19 are accelerating trends that they will benefit from in the long-term. We uncover these in our new report, ‘The Future of International Education,’ which we commissioned from the Future Laboratory to help universities get under the skin of the key priorities of one of their key customers – international students.
The report uncovers five new types of international students and highlights how their expectations of universities are evolving based on economic, technological, cultural and environmental trends that have shaped their beliefs and attitudes.
Social Engineers, for example, say how a university looks after its
students’ health and wellness influences their decision to study there (79%), and three in four want universities that take a stand on social issues (75%). In comparison, Greener Graduates would boycott a university for not acting environmentally responsible (58%), while Digital Learners are put off by a university that does not accept mobile payments on campus (49%), or for tuition and accommodation fees (53%).
In response to both Digital Leaners and Greener Graduates, we predict
we’ll see a Rise in Transnational learning, as universities move to online learning platforms which students can access anywhere in the world. While the former group of students is motivated by a love of technology, and the latter by concerns over the carbon footprint of their travel, the COVID-19 pandemic is now accelerating this trend even faster.
Further to the focus on technology from Digital Learners, our report
finds that to keep up with the expectations of international students, universities need to be able to provide digital learning for students. For example, the majority of students from Asia (64%) expect digital learning, and 78% of global international students embrace technology. The future is smart campuses, and with this high level of expectation from international students, it will require investment in new infrastructure.
As universities continue to navigate the challenges related to COVID-19,
making these structural changes as they go, it is important for universities to ensure they are listening to the needs of international students, who are even more impacted than domestic students, and are a crucial source of funding for these institutions.
Many international students will be reconsidering their university of
choice, based on its ability to operate in the changed market – and universities will be competing hard to attract students from overseas. As both students and institutions continue to plan for a very different future, it is essential that the sector embraces a flexible approach. Focusing beyond traditional learning and considering broader issues, including digital transformation, sustainability and students’ emotional wellbeing will be crucial to appealing to the new generation of international students.
Facing reality: the educational challenge
Comment by FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation
No one can deny that there is increasing polarisation in today’s politics, as politicians seek to ascribe blame for systemic failures or fail to engage with science or reason, but nowhere is this more obvious than in the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the US. Some may argue that systemic racism
in the US is a problem that we don’t share in the UK but a country whose wealth and growth was built on imperialism and exploitation cannot help but be the product of its making – you just have to look at the Brixton riots, the death of Stephen Lawrence in the 90s and the McPherson report that that found the Met to be institutionally racist, the attempted deportation of the Windrush generation, or even the post-Brexit threats to children of colour that their families were about to be deported because of the colour of their skin. When pundits hark back to the halcyon days ‘before the EU’ or ‘before
namby pamby liberals’ started weakening the backbone of the country, they’re harking back to days when people of colour had little or no voice. Even when they had the right to vote, the system was stacked against them in terms of education, jobs and access. Failure to understand just how a system which refuses to fund
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education, health and social care effectively can prevent generations from achieving their potential is a failure to understand privilege. We talk about the need to engage children with education; we talk
about their need to be happy and the importance of developing the learning skills that will support them throughout life. At the Learn2Think Foundation we are passionate about the goal of education being the development of compassionate, creative and critical thinkers. With the changes our society faces, whether it is learning to adapt to the impact of COVID-19 and the potential transformation of education and working life, or the impact of climate change on global supply chains and our way of life, the most necessary change has to date been ignored. What the US protests have shown is that at some point society will say, thus far, no further. In the UK BAME populations have suffered considerably more from the
effects of coronavirus, and it is those with customer-facing jobs like delivery and warehouse workers who have been encouraged to go back to work now in jobs facing the public, while some banks and insurers have recommended that staff work from home until at least the end of the year. We need to think about the world our children will be facing and start asking the hard questions. Few children today are not aware of what happens in the news, they’re
online and they’re connected. We can’t protect them from the worst excesses that the press and the internet has to offer. But there is a way to change the way they experience these things. Last year saw the release of a film about US children's TV personality
Mr Rogers. He always said, ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Hiding children from the reality of the world won’t help them in the long run. Instead we need to teach them why the world is the way it is and how to make it better. Help them understand. Help them see the ways in which our society needs to be better. And help them learn how to make it so.
June 2020
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