The underlying questions of the e-Revolution book don’t go away – in fact, the importance of re-thinking the shape of post-compulsory education holistically is becoming ever more important in relation both to the extending range and type of stakeholder involvement and with the changing nature of new technologies.
Recently had an interesting phone call with Stephen Hill (Professor of Lifelong Learning and Dean of Teaching and Learning Innovation, University of Gloucestershire) – I was telling him of a specific example where neither the university systems nor the culture could cope with the idea of bringing learners from the workplace together with full-time MA students to study, within a single module. The business of integration of different procedures for costing, registration, accreditation and assessment across a short course and a post-graduate degree seemed insurmountable – even though bringing these groups together from their various perspectives was central to the proposed educational programme.
Talking to Stephen, it become clear that we really do need some new terminology and models for articulating customer relationships which , as he says “encompass the fundamental question of what it is that contemporary universities are about.” Terms like engagement and knowledge transfer/exchange suggest a different understanding to either the assumed older business and academic oppositions or the glib belief that education is only for employability.
In his article entitled Post-disciplinary, post-compulsory education? Stephen explores the complexities that arise from engagement between and across education, business and the community in what he calls “an increasingly post-disciplinary educational landscape” and suggests some questions raised for both our institutional models and for the language we use.