New Media and the Transformation of Higher Education

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 won’t survive as a residential institution’. Peter Drucker, 1997 ‘On the Web for free you’ll 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 Changing student demographics/ expectations Relationship to industry Cost pressures Rise of new for-profit providers Global ranking systems • Globalisation • Knowledge economy • Dispersal of knowledge through the Internet • Worldwide demand for higher education • Government policies to manage costs/growth/ differentiation

4. Major source/destination countries for higher education students (‘000) Source: UNESCO 2012.

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

6. Paradoxical implications of the Internet for knowledge • Abundance • Linking • Permission-free publication • Publicness of knowledge creation • 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

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

10. Evolution of Open and Distance Education (ODE)

11. ‘Baumol’s 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 Source: Barber et. al., An Avalanche Is Coming, IPPR, 2013, p. 21.

13. ‘Five P’s’ framework for evaluating changes in higher education • Practical issues • Personal issues • Pedagogical issues • Policy issues • Philosophical issues

14. Myths of Internet-based higher education • 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 • 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)