1. New Media and the Transformation of Higher Education Presentation to the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK 14 October 2013 Terry Flew Professor of Media and Communication Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia

2. The Deathstar Scenario Higher education is in deep crisis … Already we are beginning to deliver more lectures and classes off- campus via satellite or two- way video at a fraction of the cost. The college wont survive as a residential institution. Peter Drucker, 1997 On the Web for free youll be able to find the best lectures in the world … College, except for the parties, needs to be less place-based. Bill Gates, 2010

3. Drivers of Change in Higher Education 1.Globalisation 2.Knowledge economy 3.Dispersal of knowledge through the Internet 4.Worldwide demand for higher education 5.Government policies to manage costs/growth/ differentiation 6.Changing student demographics/ expectations 7.Relationship to industry 8.Cost pressures 9.Rise of new for-profit providers 10.Global ranking systems

4. Major source/destination countries for higher education students (000) Source countries (000)Destination countries (000) 1China (568)United States (684) 2India (211)United Kingdom (390) 3South Korea (127)Australia (271) 4Germany (105)France (259) 5Turkey (72)Germany (200) 6France (68)Japan (141) 7Russia (62)Russia (129) 8Malaysia (58)Canada (95) 9United States (55)China (71) 10Morocco (54)South Africa (60) Source: UNESCO 2012.

5. Aspects of globalisation/disembedding of HEIs 1.Growing reliance on international enrolments as sources of institutional funding 2.Cross-border teaching programs 3.International sources of research funding/collaborative research projects 4.Cross-border accreditation of programs (e.g. AACSB, EQUIS for MBAs)

6. Paradoxical implications of the Internet for knowledge 1.Abundance 2.Linking 3.Permission-free publication 4.Publicness of knowledge creation 5.Visible contestation over knowledge claims The old Enlightenment ideal [of knowledge] was far more plausible when what we saw of the nattering world came through filters that hid the vast, disagreeable bulk of disagreement (David Weinberger, Too Big to Know, 2012, p. 174).

7. Elite to Mass to Universal Higher Education Elite (0-15%)Mass (15-50%)Universal (50% +) Attitudes to access Privilege of birth or talentRight for those with appropriate qualificationsObligation for middle and upper classes Functions of higher education Shaping mind and character; preparation for elite roles Transmission of skills; preparation for wider range of professional and technical roles Adaptation of whole population to rapid social and technological change Curriculum and forms of instruction Highly structured; based around academic conceptions of knowledge More modular, flexible and semi-structured sequence of courses Boundaries and sequences break down, as do distinctions between types of learning Student career Undertaken after secondary school as uninterrupted period of life More deferred entry and mature-age entry Softening of boundaries between formal education, work and other aspects of life Institutional characteristics Homogeneous with high and common standards; many students on-campus; campus separate from wider society More diverse standards; mixed residential or commuting; campus more integrated into the community Great diversity with no common standards; many students rarely or never on campus; boundaries weak or non-existent Locus of power, decision- making and academic administration Collegiate; elite group with shared values and assumptions; academic amateurs selected as administrators by peers Rise of the full-time academic-administrator; growth in professional bureaucracies Full-time academic managers drawing on business management techniques; appointments from outside academe Access and selection Meritocratic based primarily on school performance Meritocratic based on multiple criteria; equity provisions for under-represented groups Open access with targeted support for under- represented groups

8. Positional Goods and Status Hierarchies Elite universities are partly beyond economics. They need resources, but resources are the means to more fundamental ends: the education of future leaders, research, institutional social position and historical power. Simon Marginson, The Impossibility of Capitalist Markets in Higher Education, Journal of Education Policy 28(3), 2013, p. 364.

9. Public good aspects of universities, and their paradoxes Public Good aspectPrivate good element Support for the education of individuals boosts overall stock of human capital through a more knowledgeable population Individuals capture the benefits of higher education in higher average incomes over time Research leads to the generation of new knowledge and breakthrough innovations that would be under-supplied in absence of public support Success in attracting research funding boosts the status and research capacity of elite universities Universities as scholarly institutions contribute to a vibrant public sphere Creation of status hierarchies as elite researchers are highly sought after by competing universities

10. Evolution of Open and Distance Education (ODE)

11. Baumols Disease in higher education Difficulties in technology:labour substitution Use of student:staff ratios as a proxy for quality of teaching Institutional rigidities Pressure to buy the best researchers Increased expenditure on student support services Mismatch between institutional incentives and expectations of both students and other stakeholders (e.g. governments) William Bowen, Higher Education in the Digital Age, 2013.

12. Weighted global university ranking criteria Times Higher EducationQS Top UniversitiesARWU (Shanghai Jiao Tong) Teaching (30%)Academic peer review (40%) Education: Alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%) Research: volume, income and reputation (30%) Global employer review (10%) Faculty: Staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%) Citations: research influence (30%)Faculty/student ratio (20%) Highly cited researchers in 21 categories (20%) Industry income – innovation (2.5%)Citations per faculty (20%) Research – papers in Nature and Science (20%) International outlook – students, staff and research (7.5%) International faculty ratio (5%) Papers cited in Science/Social Science Citation (20%) International student ratio (5%)Per capita academic performance (10%) Source: Barber et. al., An Avalanche Is Coming, IPPR, 2013, p. 21.

13. Five Ps framework for evaluating changes in higher education Practical issues Personal issues Pedagogical issues Policy issues Philosophical issues

14. Myths of Internet-based higher education 1.The Internet will kill off university campuses – Assumption that on-campus experience is exclusively about access to course content – Eds and Meds urban development strategies 2.Online education is cheaper than face-to-face – Considerable fixed costs involved in developing online content – Costs of bandwidth, revamping content, reskilling staff etc.

15. Benefits and costs of online course delivery (Lei and Gupta) Benefits of online deliveryCosts of online delivery Institutions Ability to reach a wider range of students Greater flexibility in class scheduling Enabling low-cost access to wider range of resources Reduced costs of communicating with students Costs of acquiring appropriate software and computer hardware Need to train faculty and students on how to use new programs Need for upgrades, and issues of incompatible technology Faculty Greater flexibility in how and when courses are delivered New modes of communication and interaction with students Ability to use freely available online resources as additional learning materials Ability to engage learning instructors and develop course delivery teams Challenges of ensuring all students are engaged and motivated Challenges of learning new technologies and programs Work overload with student emails, questions etc. Difficulty in separating teaching/non-teaching times with 24/7 student access online Students Flexibility in how, when and where to participate in courses Ability to undertake self-paced learning Some student cohorts may prefer absence of formal classes and need to travel Need to have appropriate ICT infrastructure (computer, software, broadband access) Requires higher levels of self-motivation and time management Lack of face-to-face peer interaction may be a problem for some learners