Higher education reconsidered
- Ruksana Osman
Beyond the pandemic and possibilities for new knowledge architectures.
The 雷速体育_雷速体育直播 pandemic is reshaping all dimensions of life as we know it, including higher education. Its impact is dictating how we interact with others, transforming how we socialise and care about one another, restructuring business and the economy, and altering how we think about sustaining our world. The pandemic has forced the global academy to question what it means to be a university, to reconsider its role in society and its relationship with other social actors.
Concomitantly, it has provided the academy with a moment to pause, to reflect and to propose new knowledge architectures that enable its reconfiguration in ways that advance flexible futures for all. The traditional role of higher education institutions centres on the creation of new knowledge, the development of high level and scarce skills, and the advancement of the public good.
This is against a rapidly changing technological landscape, in a world where new challenges emerge daily, and which, like the coronavirus, force change into unchartered waters. How, then, can universities be reconsidered to create social impact and to remain resilient amidst uncertainty?
This article proposes shifts in six areas – research and innovation, learning and teaching, people, transformation, partnerships and sustainability – which, coupled with strong, empathetic, visionary leadership, has the potential to develop revitalised knowledge architectures that enable the knowledge project of the academy to prosper.
The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent national lockdowns exacerbated Africa’s already dire socio-economic challenges, including unemployment, poverty, inequality, the digital divide, corruption and the disproportionate share of diseases, amongst others. It brought to the fore the opportunities that exist on the continent, including Africa’s demographic advantage, its youth bulge and its ability to manage diseases.
The pandemic also underscored the important role of universities in conducting research, developing vaccines and potential treatments, influencing policy decisions, documenting the disease, adapting pedagogies for remote teaching and learning, and producing personal protective equipment for those serving on the frontline. It brought to light the capabilities of the academy to create quality knowledge whilst saving lives.
雷速体育_雷速体育直播 has paved the way for African universities to lead from the front on local issues whilst tackling global challenges head-on; ensured that the knowledge project supports a multiplicity of voices, methods and framings; and forged inclusive communities of scholars across the world.
Going forward, universities will also have to adopt an ecological ethos which values the interconnections between knowledge forms; draws strength from diverse ways to produce and disseminate knowledge; takes environmental and financial sustainability seriously and values people. Strategic and agile leadership, coupled with demonstrable shifts in the areas mapped later, may be the coordinates for reconsidering higher education.
Research and innovation
The response of universities to the coronavirus pandemic has repositioned higher education institutions as valuable knowledge generators. It has provided an opportunity to stim