We take a deep dive into The Guild’s new Insight Paper to see what research-led universities and the Higher Education field should look like in the future.
Jo Angouri, Professor in sociolinguistics and University-level Academic Director for education and internationalisation at the University of Warwick, wrote The Guild’s latest Insight Paper ‘Reimagining Research-led Education in a Digital Age’. The Guild is composed of twenty-one European research-intensive universities in sixteen countries, including the University of Bern. Formed in 2016, the association’s goal is to enhance the voice of research, innovation and academic institutions by creating knowledge that benefits society and the future of Europe.
The Insight Paper presents a framework for the future of research-led universities in our digital era. One of the most important things universities should provide to society is graduates that have acquired research-led education and relevant skills. However, the current general structure of European Higher Education Institution (HEI) systems does not take into account a number of factors. For example, the ‘typical’ student has changed; more and more youngsters cannot dedicate three to five years to being fulltime students. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has obligated universities to rethink their entire structure of learning and teaching. It is possible that the new hybrid model of blended learning will become the norm from now until the near future. For these reasons, research-intensive universities should rethink their learning and teaching approaches, especially the relationship between research and teaching.
Angouri offers a list of recommendations, which can act as a framework for research-intensive universities in the future. The sector at regional, national and international level should start treating graduates as global creative citizens, by innovating transnational collaboration between universities. HEIs should try to better recognise the challenges of their pupils, for example, the rise of digital poverty accentuated by blended learning. The latter is related to the lack of digital skills and/or of digital infrastructure, like connectivity and accessibility. To meet this challenge, HEIs should use the experience of the pandemic to work on the importance of in-person learning and the additional value of using digital technology. Moreover, national governments should recognise that internationalisation strengthens the reputation and excellence of their own institutions. Angouri further insists on the importance of quality assurance systems. On the one hand, institutions should trust the systems of their peers and on the other, educational ministries should reduce red tape around quality assurance.
Finally, Angouri focuses on what the EU should try to change collectively. Mobility should be more dynamic and inclusive: an important step is augmenting student funding, by strengthening national financial commitments. Another major goal should be to ensure academic freedom and institutional autonomy of universities. To conclude her considerations, Angouri points out how this new potential framework needs to take into account the diversities of the regional and national communities while at the same time aligning to the global trends and to the spirit of the overarching European institutions like the Bologna Process and the Erasmus+ Programme. It is essential that the EU works closely with higher education stakeholder groups like The Guild and the European Universities. The latter is one of the EU’s flagship initiatives to achieve the European Education Area (EEA) by 2025 and consists of transnational alliances of HEIs acting as testbeds for joint recruitment and accreditation schemes among different institutions across the EU and the development and implementation of flexible learning pathways such as micro-credentials. In addition, in the Communication on the EEA published last September, the EC announced the co-creation of a transformation agenda for higher education by the end of 2021. In this context, the EC is currently working on a ‘European Strategy for Universities’ along with relevant HEI stakeholders and the Member States. The strategy wants to strengthen the HEI field, by helping it become more inclusive, sustainable, open and connected. It wants to make the European education landscape more competitive and attractive by building on its diversity. The strategy will help create stronger synergies between the EEA, European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Research Area (ERA).