The future of universities

The pandemic has changed the face of universities, from in person hubs of knowledge to wider reaching global enterprises, that now frequently rely on asynchronous methods of teaching to educate a new generation of students.

But how has the new reliance on online learning technologies impacted students, and what will universities look like going forward?

In September, Imperial College London were named the Sunday Times' University of the year 2022 for both achievement and student satisfaction. Imperial College London have become trailblazers for delivering hybrid on campus and online teaching during the pandemic that has not only matched the success of their previous in person model, but has actually increased student satisfaction by 3%.

As we move into an increasingly tech dominated world, aided in no small part by the Coronavirus pandemic, tech solutions for teaching and learning are constantly evolving allowing university staff and students to create a new environment for learning. Using a mix of synchronous and asynchronous communication (such as online discussion forums, Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams which allows for both) students are able to build meaningful relationships with their peers and can simulate the classroom environment. Teaching and Learning tools such as Team Based Learning (TBL) is a popular classroom tool to foster relationships between learners, as well as to aid in depth group participation. TBL can now be carried out entirely online with either purpose-built tools or by combining features of an existing VLE with communication platforms such as MS Teams or Zoom.

Most universities have been operating some form of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for a few years, whether formally or informally. The pandemic has allowed students to access necessary equipment from universities creating an environment where learning resources are available to a vast majority of students at any time they wish to access them. As universities have adapted to meet the pressures set by a pandemic, they have inadvertently opened themselves up to becoming more accessible in the process. It's now become the norm to record and caption lectures, to allow students to attend class from home and at different times, for exams to be taken off campus. Many universities have seen an increase in student applications for the 2021 academic year, and perhaps one reason for this is universities have opened up a whole new way of studying that's inclusive of students who may have been deterred by a traditional chalk and talk approach.

It's still very early to say how universities may look in the future, and it's unlikely the physical bricks and mortar aspect will soon disappear, what we can expect to see however is a new generation of diverse and committed students who are no strangers to using new and exciting learning tech.