University Education 2025

University Education around 2025 – WORLD

Course-Curriculum/Learning-teaching Method & Approach:  Many 4 years courses will not be available. Different model of learning like “phenomenon-based learning”, “immersive learning”, “flipped classroom learning” will be highly in the picture. As Conventional education has largely been unable to meet the demand/ need for specialist knowledge of technology; students will be channelled through a structured, tailored corporate curriculum, to become career professionals almost seamlessly. Entrepreneurship education will be imbibed in all kind of curriculum. There will be greater collaboration with corporations to ensure students are gaining the correct skills for the in-demand jobs, considering equal importance of communications and technical skills. Competency-based education (CBE) will increase and it will lowers the costs and reduces completion time for students. Dual enrolment most likely to happen rapidly which is dual credit or parallel enrolment where high school students gets enrolled in college-level courses working / experienced professionals taking lead role in teaching compared to the current trend of teachers with less / no industry exposure.

Technology & Digital Platform: The number of VR educational users is expected to increase to around 15 million by 2025, according to a report about virtual and augmented reality published by Goldman Sachs. Augmented reality based learning also will be inclusive part with Virtual reality Almost all known universities will be implementing smart app, chatbot and AI for various purposes to answers all the questions which may arise to students for education and parents for general inquiries Massive online open courses — or MOOCs — are distance-learning programs with no entry requirements, completed via the internet, and available to an unlimited number of participants which already exist. However, MOOCs will change the landscape and make this a global market where education sector’s many small and medium providers will eventually consolidate into a few market-leaders.Investment in advanced technology in the education sector would rise significantly by 2025.

Students and Parents: Student will prefer physical campus for bonus value add like attractive infrastructure, high quality accommodation, cafe-bars, leisure-retails, etc. Parents will need to learn too in order to keep pace with their kids, that will open up to new target groups for those entities which are into certification.

Teachers: Teacher’s role will change completely. They will not act as a subject expert only; they will also act as a moderator, coach and facilitator. It will be a mutual learning. Different KRA’s will be needed in the profile- i.e applying new  sets  of  knowledge  to  practical requirements  in  complex  social  settings, must be able to employ new forms of teaching and learning competently. The various demands which teachers in higher education are increasingly facing will lead to a more differentiated distribution of their tasks over the research – teaching continuum.

International: Internationalization will happen via Global partnerships in the domestic market rapidly-specifically with big names which may result into a decline in the demand for international higher education. Academic credit system will play significant role in continent collaboration study for students.

New Business Model and Universities operations: The entire administrative work will be digital in the university- with new technologies. College admissions at highly ranked schools will become both more transparent and even more in-demand. These schools will respond by altering their offerings. Fees will be higher of sub specialized course specifically related to AI/Robotics/Software Application Institute may act more as an platform of learning rather than a proprietary source of knowledge (open source thinking) This whole technology evolution as a driver of running education sector will bring new partnership model to work as a for-profit organization. New players, new alliances — and perhaps establishment and the expansion of “corporate universities”, established by tech giants to ensure a supply of talented graduates. Hundreds of former college campuses will be bought by companies operating for-profit education, senior living facilities, etc. — whether it is private equity owners, investors or other financially oriented sponsors. Public-private partnership (PPP) model will have positive shift in education sector to provide education for all. There are an increasing number of start-ups that are emerging to close the gap between what employers say they want from graduates and what they are getting from the experience. Enterprise training companies will fill the skills gap by working directly with employers. 

University Education around 2025 – INDIA

Private Entities: Private entities of education sector in India will grow as a true digital disruptive education provider. Around 40-50% internationalization and digital disruption will happen where truly AI and Robotics will be a major driver of the universities

Lower to middle class community: Lack of Money/Poor to lower middle class family situation will drive students to look for cheaper alternatives too, which will result in a way where community colleges will emerge as a big player & include offering bachelor’s degrees to Masters Degrees.

Students & Parents: Students and families will focus more on return on investment, affordability and student loan debt. To elaborate – Potential students will weigh college return on investment, including the outcomes of the past students, job prospects upon graduation and the overall college experience more seriously than whether a school has a gym/nice infra or not.

Government Bodies and Policies:

1. Government will take radical move in the history where major innovation activities or digital disruption projects will be funded by them or they will be involved directly to run the system.
2. Student loan structure might get altered considering change in the education pattern
3. Competitive exam’s format and selection of students for universities and colleges will change
4. ed/M.ed course curriculum and requirement will change in India significantly in order to produce skilled teachers who are equipped with right knowledge of technology and running colleges in new way
5. Strong need of reforming university courses with different names and will be in line with direct job placement; corporate education structure adaptation.
6. Government will mandate some percentage of e-leadership to prepare leaders/universities with the ability to incorporate technology in a digital era effectively. Digital education is likely to be integrated into mainstream education.

Impact of Covid 19 in this journey

• Parents-Students: Student ownership in the learning process will increase and he/she would need to take more responsibility in the learning process. In this journey the most beneficial party will be students as they will be able to learn anytime, anything and at any place.
• Institution: The whole journey of digital disruption will get boost as National and international level entities will start some actions whatever they can take in this direction as per their capacity and strategic planning. New model in education sector with technology will help many players in positive revenue growth Varieties of learning Medium will take birth OR spread faster –Flip learning/adaptive learning/Immersive learning/Project based and experiential learning etc. Education sector also will rely on data completely to see overall performance due to increasing importance of data interpretation and data analytics.
• Government Bodies and Policies: Government will come up with new model to participate and contribute in the industry: Internationalization will happen “at home” and it will bring international mobility and convey intercultural skills digitally. India-push of digitalisation due to covid-19 will boost literacy ratio of India. India-With a rapid increase of mobile internet users in India, which is expected to reach 85% households by 2024, technology is enabling universal access and personalisation of education even in the remotest parts of the country

• Parents-Students: Adverse hit on economy will make it difficult for parents to pay fees and so difficult for schools to survive New methods/ patterns of Examination might change completely which can be ambiguous to parents or students-difficult to trust until and unless very much scientific
• Institutions: Employability can become major challenge too during this journey for many streams and in some streams link between academic quality and employability will be challenge. Quality assurance will be difficult for many players because the whole world of education is new when technology become denominator to operate -i.e teachers and their knowledge grip on it. Integrating sustainability in the reform model for any institution will be a challenge. Establishment of quality assurance mechanisms and quality benchmark for online learning developed and offered by India HEIs as well as e-learning platforms will become a challenge as quality of courses may differ across different e-learning platforms. Lack of fund /limited fund availability with many players to take big jump into the Digital disruption journey to invest on technology
• Government Bodies and Policies: Every board and ministry might face huge paradox in this journey to reform the education segment-Great flexibility vs standardization, Expansion vs selection. India-The disruption in the delivery of education is pushing policymakers to figure out how to drive engagement at scale while ensuring inclusive e-learning solutions and tackling the digital divide. India-The figures, based on the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s weekly tracker survey, unemployment shot up from 8.4% in mid-March to the current 23%. 50 million people might have lost jobs in just two weeks of the lock down. India- Underprivileged students may lag behind due to lack of equipment and internet connectivity in the age of digital learning. Internet connectivity and power supply can also impact tier-2, tier-3 cities. India-Significant portion of middle and lower middle class population will not be able to afford this journey especially now after pandemic. India-Government controlled policy and boards looks unpredictable which doesn’t give idea on the progress of this journey.
• Teachers: Flexibility and adaptability of teachers to learn new methods and play a role of all in one

Author:

Keyuri Patel,  an engineer who has mastered refining cultures and leadership, is associated with Jagdish Hirani & Associates  as a Project Manager. She is consistently improving the conversion of strategies from design boards to ground team. She has a wide experience consulting organizations in the fields of BFSI, Education, Textile, Outdoor Media, Technology, Garments, Architectural Hardware, Travel and Event Management. Apart from contributing to the consulting projects she is also leading people initiatives at J.Hirani.

Success Mantra “Don’t say “yes” if you are not convinced”. Understand that ultimately it’s your team (not machines, technology, money or product) who drives your organization.

About J.hirani: J.hirani is a Strategic Transformation team which works as a growth partner for different organisations in various industries by providing services like Agile transformation, Scenario mapping, Strategic alignment, Balance scorecard, Digital transformation, Incubating new ventures, Operation excellence and Aligning human capital.

©J.Hirani, University Education 2025, May 2020. All rights reserved.