Opinions

Now semester 1 is over. We had hoped we would be back on campuses with our students, and some were, in part. But is any university, or its staff group, any more certain of what will happen next semester than they were before this one started, in any state in Australia?

Leading an Australian university just got even more difficult. Minister Alan Tudge clarified in his UA conference speech what many feared. There is no new public funding for the sector. 

Despite the strong evidence, well-known benefits and fit with our values, the data on how we are tracking in terms of gender and other diversity in the sector is ambiguous at best, and poor at worst.

The conversations about higher education were never more listened to, or diverse. But what do we hear, what sense do we make of it, and how do we respond?

Imagine a university taking advantage of this seismic disruption triggered by a global pandemic to not tweak, but completely transform, how it provides student experiences.

The current time is a curious mix of short-term, mid-pandemic adjustments that will be temporary, and long-term seismic shifts that will change the game forever. The million-dollar question is knowing which is which.

Micro-credentials bring an ability to deliver smaller collections of rapidly changing and emerging new knowledge to a growing learning community, whose commitment to formal qualifications, as a sole education goal, is in decline. 

The increase in tree and sea changes, the move to the regions, and the retro movement and growth of local communities, are all major drivers for universities right now. I hear an increasing number of vice chancellors talk about 2021 being a year of forging stronger links with their internal and external communities and giving greater credence to local context. 

The end of one annual university cycle typically sees numbers become clearer about what the next will bring. Grants are awarded, promotions decided, targets set in performance plans, after details are confirmed of outcomes in the year just ended. 

Sharpening works for some tools but not for others. The phrase that if “all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail” is often used to encourage us to recognise multiple tools are needed to get complex, diverse and unpredictable jobs done.