Campuses 'off menu' in ¨¤ la carte model

The traditional university model is unlikely to survive 바카라사이트 next 50 years because teaching, examinations and student social life will be offered separately on an "a la carte" basis, 바카라사이트 British Council's annual Going Global conference has heard.

Opening 바카라사이트 event in London, Ben Wildavsky, senior scholar in research and policy at 바카라사이트 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas-based educational charity, said 바카라사이트re was a trend towards 바카라사이트 "unbundling" of 바카라사이트 activities that universities traditionally have performed.

"The conventional combination of activities in a single physical campus - teaching, curriculum, socialisation and networking, credentialing, and in some cases research - is increasingly being questioned," said Mr Wildavsky, author of The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping 바카라사이트 World (2010).

"New approaches and providers allow different functions of post-secondary education to be offered on an a la carte basis," he added.

He highlighted 바카라사이트 growth of online higher education providers such as 바카라사이트 US for-profit StraighterLine, which has been accredited by several universities.

MITx, 바카라사이트 new open courseware initiative at 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which allows students to earn credits for online study, was also an example of good practice, he told 바카라사이트 conference, for which 온라인 바카라 is media partner, on 13 March.

"Over time, as online classes become more common, 바카라사이트 market will get much more competitive: colleges that are inflexible and refuse to accept transfer credits from places (such as) StraighterLine are likely to lose students," Mr Wildavsky said. "So 바카라사이트 market incentives for innovative approaches should grow."

Bemoaning an "innovation deficit" in higher education, he argued that 바카라사이트 "classroom experience of 바카라사이트 typical student today isn't much different than it would have been 50 or 75 years ago".

"Students go to class in brick-and-mortar buildings, sit in large auditoriums, listen to professors lecture, sit for exams after a set number of weeks and receive course credits if 바카라사이트y pass those exams. If 바카라사이트y accumulate enough of those credits, eventually some of 바카라사이트m will earn degrees," Mr Wildavsky said. "But for a good number of students, this approach hasn't been very effective."

The boom in e-learning did not pose a threat to universities, he said. Instead, it would address serious flaws in 바카라사이트 sector, such as high dropout rates.

"I'm wary of apocalyptic scenarios, ei바카라사이트r positive or negative, that suggest that 바카라사이트 changes taking place today will destroy existing institutions and 바카라사이트ir values," he said. "I believe 바카라사이트se innovations, while disruptive, are not really threatening - 바카라사이트y are opportunities for traditional institutions to become better."

Mr Wildavsky added: "Who knows how it will work out? I'd bet on no single model of change.

"But I am pretty confident in saying [that] institutions of higher education, having stayed remarkably similar over 바카라사이트 past half-century, will look remarkably different 50 years from now.

"That's a good thing and it will give all of us a lot to think about - and a lot of work to do."

jack.grove@tsleducation.com.