The COVID pandemic forcefully changed the world’s perception of higher education (HE). The pandemic disrupted traditional thinking about the future of HE. Overnight, institutions had to adapt to new ways of teaching, as well as the deployment of innovative platforms to facilitate learning and teaching. Consequently, several trends emerged. One of these is the leveraging of technology innovations in facilitating institutional business continuity. The lingering question is “how can higher education reposition for relevance and student success.”

This paper leans on the results of data sourced from a comprehensive, pandemic-related literature review and the results of a focus group interview with 10 university executives from South African and UK Universities. These focused on current, inescapable trends shaping higher education globally.

Although divergent, the consensus views are that the future of HE will never be the same. Despite the operational and strategic challenges that face HE, new directions dictate the need to rethink the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of university operations. Issues such as leadership, relevance, societal impact, transformation and sustainability can no longer be mere boardroom speak as reality demands intentionality about rethinking curricula, graduate attributes and decisive responsiveness to contextual challenges and the AI unrelenting onslaught.

This paper will, therefore, explore higher education’s ability and readiness to be responsive to current and future challenges and how these will likely shape the future of higher education and enhance student success opportunities.

Authors:
Manyane Makua, Mangosuthu University of Technology, South Africa

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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