For learning and knowledge, universities have been considered the main societal hub. The basic structures of how universities bring about and propagate knowledge and assess students have survived completely through the deep societal modifications induced by technology—the moveable-type printing press, the telegraph, the Industrial Revolution, radio, telephone, computers, and television. Today, the business of higher education comes off as susceptible to tech derangement to some as other information-centric industries such as magazines and journals, news media, music, encyclopedias, television, and motion pictures. The spread of knowledge needs no longer be bound to a college campus. The technical accessibility of digital textbooks, cloud-based computing, high-quality streaming video, mobile connectivity, and “just-in-time” information collecting have pushed huge amounts of knowledge to the “placeless” web. This has sparked a university’s role within networked society and a robust re-examination of its modern mission.
Role to be Played by Universities in Shaping a Post-Pandemic World
As we all know, the pandemic visually explained engrained social problems and extreme inequities, needing a rethinking of how our institutions work. Universities should play a dominant role in that rethinking. COVID-19 has exacerbated and exposed authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies in many countries. Higher education is obliged to help make sure that democracy does not become a victim of the pandemic. One way universities can do that is to strengthen global partnerships dedicated to proceeding with the democratic mission of higher education.
Transforming the Students of Tomorrow
The market is transforming rapidly and besides that, the nature of jobs is also changing. Students need to be able to modernize their proficiencies throughout their careers. Students give importance to employability when opting for universities, but many future jobs are not yet apparent. To make sure that students can succeed in the future, universities must prepare them to be lifelong learners who can develop new skills and give them entrepreneurial mindsets and broad, cross-disciplinary problem-solving skills. Home tutors are also playing a role in helping and teaching the students across all variety of fields and professions, shaping the educational system and, therefore, society itself.
Institutions must be agile in adapting to the new definition of a University
Higher education institutions will have to remain indefinitely on the path brought forth by the global pandemic – remaining flexible to changes and challenging set norms that will continue to advance. Anyone firmly sticking to the idea of institutions coming back to “the way things were” will soon find themselves behind the curve, as the old version of normal is unlikely to ever revert. The old guard, people who employ learning models that no longer meet the developing needs of modern learners (if they ever fully did) or have practices that were developed before modern technologies, may create difficulty in the successful advancement of an institute in both 2021 and beyond in the post-pandemic future. To remain beneficial and relevant to the requirements of their students, institutions must carry through solutions-focused strategies in response to an ever-changing world.
