June 26, 2023, 7:10 AM
June 26, 2023, 7:10 AM
The students of the digital generation are very different from previous times. Now they are characterized by being more impatient, demanding, incredulous, utilitarian, individualistic and with less faith in the wisdom of teachers. The assessment corresponds to Guy Haug, international expert in higher education of the European Union.
The profound changes that have occurred in the profile of students are not in tune with the curricula of some higher education institutions, says the partner in the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, UNESCO and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
New technologies bring changes at all levels. The appearance of equipment increasingly sophisticated and the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve its performance It has transformed many scenarios. One of them has to do withl Emergence of new jobs, professions and labor schemes.
Haug called on universities to reinvent itself to fulfill its social role and contribute to employment, growth, innovation and well-being generated by what has to do with University Social Responsibility.
“Corporate governance, accountability and sustainability in the 21st century”, was the title of his presentation at the “IV International Forum of Higher Education: Technological Innovation and Governance”, which was held in the city of Santa Cruz de la Mountain range.
The expert considers that the gap between university offer and training needs of society and students, despite all efforts.
What society asks for are people adaptable, able to solve complex problems based on teamwork, increasingly multidisciplinary and international, which deserves a profound change that is not accepted in the old methods and does not produce the same results as before.
Huag proposes looking at the audiences, groups of students who do not have adequate opportunities to continue training: “I think about the continuous training throughout life. It is an issue that is talked about, but there is not enough development, except in a few countries”.
These are times to condition educational models to satisfy the training needs of migrants, essential in student mobility times, suggests the expert. With the changes come great opportunities for those who understand these advances and are trained to adopt the jobs of the future.
The universities, at present, are forming citizens for the world. The training offered in the classroom has broken down barriers and has allowed many students to gain international experience. Technological advances have allowed university students to access better knowledge through international education from digital platforms.
Huag claims that each region has its own characteristic and its way of implementing internationalization, which depends on the context in which the teaching and learning process takes place, “European models are structured according to their context, they are not adaptable to other regions, each one has its own particularities ”, he qualified.
The moment is propitious to face a reengineering that transforms education from its processes and services, in order to achieve increasingly significant learning, with a view to 2030.
“At this point in the 21st century, it no longer makes sense for higher education to remain a kind of ivory tower, self-referential and focused on its inner workings,” Haug says. Create a need for open spaces that help transform education.
The expert bets on the sustainable management of institutions of higher education, assuming its responsibility and commitment to society, “so that accountability allows the emergence of a diversified higher education system, capable of energizing learning methods and different social demands, which adjusts to the institutional profile; that is to say its own DNA”.
Entities must find and release financial resources to invest in change processes and areas for the future, it concludes.
The “IV International Forum on Higher Education: Technological Innovation and Governance” brought together world education actors and leaders. It was promoted by the Franz Tamayo University, Unifranz, as the organizing venue together with the Inter-American University Organization (OUI), the Network of University Administrators (RAUI), the National Association of Private Universities of Bolivia (ANUP) and the Educational Innovation Network of Latin America (R&E Network).
