Time for new ideas on higher education provision

The impact of COVID-19 on global higher education systems revealed the deficiencies of the current system and underlines the urgency for new ideas.

Several articles published in University World News have focused on pressures to rethink and remake higher education, and public institutions in particular (see related links).

In South Africa, practically all higher education life came to a standstill and, gradually, institutions started to open six months later, amid a high level of apprehension amid the threat of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Many aspects of the university system have been altered drastically. For example, the switch to online learning, working from home, and the ban on gatherings, which are vital to research and knowledge transfer.

The university system, under pressure to reform prior to COVID-19, now has the opportunity to rethink how things are done.

The idea of an open university

One such idea is that of ‘open universities’. Defined, an open university is one with an open-door academic policy that has minimal or no entry requirements.

Open universities largely support online and distance learning and emphasise student-centric learning with the focus emitting from the student outwards in comparison to the traditional lecturer-outwards approach.

While this does not sound ‘new’, given the University of South Africa’s (UNISA’s) commitment to open distance-learning, the concept of the open university is radically different from that of UNISA.

UNISA still follows traditional university procedures. An example is its prerequisite policy, strict and rigid curriculum and normative higher education pedagogy.

Where the open university differs is that it gives the student almost complete control of what he or she wants to learn.

The open university is appealing to the South African context from the perspective of students, but also when considering the broader university and education system.

For the student, open universities are more accessible in terms of entrance requirements.

Open universities do not consider time frames for qualification completion, alleviating the pressure that working students face to attend night and weekend classes.

Consequently, they do not carry the burden of heavy fees and study expenditures, thus limiting outrageous student loan and debt. In 2018, it was estimated that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was owed R35 billion (US$2.6 billion).

Given the growth in this debt, the figure is expected to have increased substantially.

A university where enrolments are not based on privilege will remove social stratification among its students.

The current status quo is that the more prestigious universities have higher tuition fees and are more selective in their student and staff recruitment.

In terms of the university system, there are many defunct operational errors which continue unhindered because the system is ‘not broken’.

The modern university, which has many similarities to an industrial factory, has evolved into a very lucrative business.

The 2019 Harvard admissions scandals, which involved parents paying more than US$1 million for admission, reveals the extent of the decay.

With a voracious appetite for new clients (students), universities are in competition to take on more and more students annually without consideration for infrastructure or staff constraints.

A rigid system is bad for creativity

A new system would provide good quality education for the masses and education would not be a privilege for just a few, especially under deteriorating economic systems.

In Brazil, more students from low-income families enrolled in universities when public education institutions broadened their access to universities.

Regarding the education system, since the national student protests of 2015 under the banner FeesMustFall, the discourse on decolonisation, Africanisation, transformation, and diversification have remained hot topics.

There is a need to look beyond the narrow systems, and this will require “fundamental rethinking and redoing of how knowledge is produced, taught and disseminated”, writes Professor Siphamandla Zondi in the 2018 article titled “Decolonizing International Relations and its Theory: A critical conceptual meditation”.

Indeed, we see the urgent need for rethinking and redoing in the way the departments and faculties cocoon students, resulting in their feeling trapped to complete a degree.

In the US, for example, up to 80% of students change their major at least once.

In other states it is not as easy to change majors, resulting in students losing interest in their studies. And, once students lose interest, retention rate drops.

This rigid academic system can stifle creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial insight.

Furthermore, in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, rapidly changing technology can mean a degree is redundant before the student completes it.

Online education will remain

In comparison, the high flexibility of open university allows students to select a range of modules which they see fit to complete for their degrees.

This personalisation factor can counter the current dismal student retention and throughput rates and promote better inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary research.

Furthermore, students who learn from the sciences, art, and IT fields, will develop a higher level of problem-solving skills which can be transferred to the world of work as well as social life.

Thus, the open university graduate can be more attractive to employers, helping to counter high unemployment rates, which are attributed to ‘skills shortages’.

Globally, the open university idea is taking off.

Tim Blackman, the vice-chancellor of the Open University, UK, believes that the ‘shelf-life of knowledge’ is getting shorter.

He argues that, while discovering new knowledge and innovating remain incredibly important, the fundamental issue is giving everyone the opportunity to become a lifelong learner.

As it stands, the current traditional university system remains largely exclusionary.

In East Africa, the Transforming Employability for Social Change initiative aims to help lecturers teach in ways that ensure graduates leave university, not just with subject knowledge, but also the wider skills they need for their own employment, in order to make a positive difference in the world and be better equipped to adapt to a changing environment.

The only disadvantage of the proposed open learning system is the current weak digital network infrastructure in South Africa.

“Once COVID disappears, whenever it happens, the online provision will stay and be a solid element of teaching and learning.

“After all, young people navigate through cyber space with the ease some of their older teachers could not match,” write Waldemar Siwinski and Kazimierz Bilanow, in the article published in University World News titled “Will university rankings adjust to our uncertain times?”

Moreover, the Association of Commonwealth Universities wants access to digital education to be included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to achieve equity in access to education, including tertiary learning (Waruru, 2020).

An exciting prospect

The rise of the open university should not be the end of the traditional university. The traditional university plays a major role in producing highly innovative research, academic competitiveness, and solutions to global problems.

Technical and technological universities, when first envisaged, aimed to be ‘open universities’ but, over time, have become no different to the traditional university.

Thus, ‘open universities’ unlock exciting new possibilities in higher education.

This commentary is by Professor Michael Pillay of the department of biotechnology at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, and Dr Anton M Pillay of the Centre for Academic Development, also at VUT. They can be reached at mpilllay@vut.ac.za and antonp@vut.ac.za.