I declare an interest as a past trustee of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, the last body established by Michael , Lord Young of Dartington, the inspiration for the ‘University of the Air’, whose legacy lives on through the Young Foundation.
The great insight in the 1960s was to see an opportunity made possible by the pervasive nature of TV, and to ride on the development of the video recorder to create a new route for access to adult learning. There were many innovations, such as team-based curriculum development, summer schools. A new institution was built with a campus in Milton Keynes with no students.
Since those days there have been many developments in technology in the fields of e-learning and m-learning. There is however, an important difference. Most of these developments have occurred within existing institutional arrangements. In particular, the growth in network-based e-learning since the 1990s has been inside the framework of schools, colleges and universities. This has happened for good reason.
Penetration of digital technologies in the home in the early 1990s was poorly developed. We are now approaching the point where home penetration is approaching the levels that TV had in the 1960s. With new mobile and tablet forms along with e-readers, we have a new generation of devices, like the video recorder in the 1970s, combined with broadband technologies which open up new possibilities for learning.
I am a first-generation HE student in my family and my life has been enormously enriched by my university in the 1970s. Like many parents, I am concerned with the increasing fees and levels of student debt. For me, access to Higher Education for all who can benefit is the hallmark of civilisation in the 21st century. In many countries, not just the UK, however, we find the argument about the dilemma that we can’t afford to do it and we can’t afford not to do it.
In the 1990s, the IPPR developed the notion of the ‘University for Industry’. UfI or Learn Direct as implemented under New Labour focussed mainly on the basic skills agenda (for good reason). Leaving aside the UKeU project, which failed for many reasons, most developments have been inside existing institutions.
There have been some interesting and innovative examples in alternative models of schooling such as Not School.
I am a great fan of, and user of the iTunes U platform. There is a growing wealth of high-quality materials available from some of the world’s great institutions. For me it feels that the world of learning is full of interesting possibilities that remain unseized.
The OU was founded shortly after the 1967 devaluation in harsh economic times. It was initially thought of as a ‘University of the Second Chance’, to provide a route to higher learning for the majority who had missed out.
So, if we invoke the imagination and innovative spirit of those 60s pioneers to the technological possibilities of today, what would we envisage?
It seems to me that there would be two obvious focuses for a new organisational form of HE. First, would be Continuous Professional Development and Lifelong Learning for Adults. The second would be to enhance the transfer of the UK research base into the entrepreneurial economy.
The UK has a rich and diverse set of existing Higher Education Institutions. In that mix is the OU. The system also has a history of collaboration in networking around JANET and SuperJanet. Since the 70s the sector has changed dramatically with many more older and part-time students for instance.
When the University for Industry was first explained to me, the idea was not that it should itself become a teaching institution but rather a ‘signpost’ to learning. I can remember metaphors like the ‘BACS for learning’ and ‘a travel agent’ for HE being thrown around.
I think however that we are missing out if we assume that tweaking the existing institutions is all that is needed, or indeed possible.
In its early days the OU had many sceptics and cynics. It was said that you couldn’t teach science by TV. E-learning and M-Learning today still have their detractors and nay sayers, but also a wealth of research on what works.
So, here is the challenge. Given the developments in technology in the home and workplace of the last decade and the next, how could we build a new path for access to Higher Education that will reduce the cost burden on the young, maintain and enhance the quality of learning, and protect both humanities and the STEM subjects? Is that path best served by existing institutional arrangements or do we need a new set of institutional arrangements?
HE is more than just about the subject studied. The social and personal development of the learner is itself core to civilised values as well as economic competitiveness. E- and M- learning are partners, not competitors, to traditional modes of learning.
Solve that challenge and it could be a wonderful gift to the world for the 21st century, as the OU was to the 20th. Go for it!
