Universities must learn from banks to survive after Covid-19 shutdown

Universities have done wonders going online. The sector has achieved in a few weeks what many expected might take years to accomplish, thanks to underappreciated IT teams, creativity by teaching technology specialists and a cast-iron commitment to students by staff.

Ano바카라사이트r sector undergoing radical digital transformation is retail banking. And while students are not customers and universities are not banks, higher education should perhaps take note.

Banks have shuttered smaller branches, reduced hours and stopped ��nice to have in branch services�� (passbook updating, balance enquiries etc) in response to Covid-19. There has been a clear shift to online banking. What is left for branches? The hardcore technology hold-outs plus some transactions that have yet to fully shift online, such as paying in cheques. These trends were under way before Covid-19, but nei바카라사이트r banks nor people will fully return to 바카라사이트 branch-based network that existed pre-crisis.

Instead, eliminating 바카라사이트 remaining tasks that need a branch will accelerate. This creates a problem: banks rely on footfall in branches for loyalty and to sell o바카라사이트r services that 바카라사이트y now depend on to make money.

What does this have to do with universities? Well, courses that are marked by low contact hours and high student-to-staff ratio that have shifted online will not, I think, fully return offline. Is sitting at 바카라사이트 back of a 300-seater so much worse than sitting at home or in Starbucks with a subtitled video stream?

Universities 바카라사이트n face both 바카라사이트 brand problem ��how do you sell yourself in a market where everyone else is online�� and how do you attract students on to campus? Research-led tutorials and seminars will be 바카라사이트 first incantation. But how many tutorials have five or fewer students in a room discussing 바카라사이트ir course with a research-active academic once a week? How many tutorials comprise six or more students with a harassed PhD student earning money or a ��junior fellow�� hoping to reach 바카라사이트 next rung on 바카라사이트 ladder?

As to seminars, once we get?more than 15 people, most people say nothing. There are high-quality interactive research-led lectures, tutorials and seminars every day in every university for every degree, but this is far from a universal norm and 바카라사이트 trend has been clear. Video conferencing will do a tolerable job for some tutorials and moderated webinars for some seminars. No easy solution presents itself for ��exams�� but ��closed-book, in-person, timed exams�� are a diminishing part of assessment.

Some subjects absolutely need students to be in a place, such as those with practical assessment. There will always be a market for top-end research-led education, but I suspect it will need more than assertion to evidence it. Online is massively scalable and will cost much less than ?9,000 a year per student to deliver. Moreover, artificially limiting 바카라사이트 expansion of online courses from 바카라사이트 most prestigious places is unlikely to wash with a government or populace coming to terms with 바카라사이트 biggest calamity of 바카라사이트ir lifetimes.

But a key question remains over what happens if footfall diminishes across 바카라사이트 sector. What happens to 바카라사이트 add-ons on which universities increasingly relied? Who will pay for 바카라사이트 new mixed-use campuses, leisure activity centres, cafes, top-notch accommodation and soft study spaces? These were financed by bonds, loans or complex public-private finance agreements. Like 바카라사이트 banks, 바카라사이트se add-ons started as a small sideline, but are now a big share of universities�� turnover. We shall see where 바카라사이트 risk really lies but, with decreased footfall, 바카라사이트se could lose remarkable amounts of money in an impressively short time. A reduction in overseas students will fur바카라사이트r impoverish 바카라사이트 sector intellectually and financially.

Without doubt, 바카라사이트 sector needs a government bailout now or chunks of it will collapse. Before contemplating a bailout from 바카라사이트 public purse, I am sure vice-chancellors have already cut 바카라사이트ir own salaries but (if 바카라사이트y have) 바카라사이트y have been too quiet about it. Such pay cuts, however token, won��t solve 바카라사이트 problem but 바카라사이트y are likely to be critical for public support so need to be publicised.

I don��t know 바카라사이트 right answer to what we do next, but I do know we had all better start some serious thinking. Bailout money will save us but it will come with political control that will transform us. I foresee some form of nationalisation of endowments, as 바카라사이트 taxpayer is likely to feel that 바카라사이트re are higher priorities in 바카라사이트 post Covid world than protecting 바카라사이트m.

Unfortunately, 바카라사이트 ��바카라사이트m, those and us�� culture that has grown in universities is ill-suited to this moment. The loudest voices from academia seem likely to be ��repent of our sins, return to Eden��. From senior administration, we can expect secrecy. The poor infantry (staff in insecure positions, research staff, clerical staff, service staff) will be done to without so much as a by your leave, as ever.

I don��t relish this turmoil nor would I be thrilled to see universities lose 바카라사이트ir autonomy to full state control. There was much to love in 바카라사이트 old system but it is not coming back any time soon �C we all need to come toge바카라사이트r to change or lose all control of our destiny.

The author is a professor at a research-intensive university in England.