I wonder if you remember the higher education discourse of 2020 and 2021. One aspect of it that sticks in my memory is the almost incessant talk about modalities, whether that be online, blended, hybrid or hyflex. The focus also extended beyond just the range of modalities and included the future trajectory for the primary teaching modality in higher education.
Read MoreJanuary has been a challenging month for those seeking positive news about UK higher education. The news has been full of stories of financial crises, fears of what would happen if a higher education institution (HEI) goes under and jolly topics like fraud in franchised provision. It’s clear the UK higher education sector is in a bad way.
Many HEIs are compelled to undertake a variety of measures to tackle the severe challenges they now face. This involves exploring either new markets or those in which they have not previously been active in.
Read MoreIf you've been following UK higher education policy, you'll know that a change to the student finance system is set to take place in 2025 with the introduction of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE). This is how the government describes the change:
“From 2025, the lifelong loan entitlement will provide individuals with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of 4 years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime. It will be available for both modular and full-time study at higher technical and degree levels (levels 4 to 6), regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities.”
Read MoreAs we approach the end of the year, I want to share some reflections on the past year as it relates to online education within UK higher education.
AI has dominated this year's higher education headlines, and the impressive emergence of AI in mainstream products is this year's standout story. However, the focus on AI in higher education has felt overdone at times, to the extent that one would be forgiven for thinking that nothing else happened this year.
Read MoreAs we’re approaching two years since the UK entered the first national lockdown I wanted to reflect on this period in UK higher education. This was the point when the longstanding and predominant teaching and study model of universities was completely and utterly turned on its head and the consequences of this have been playing out ever since.
Read MoreThe role of digital technologies in our lives, society and world is a topic of huge scrutiny, debate, controversy and opinion. Sometimes this noise can be as loud in education as anywhere else, and over the years much has been written and spoken about, in addition to much research in this area.
Read MoreIf you were to think back to before the pandemic, how would you describe the mode of teaching and study most reflective of what happens in our universities? At the risk of adding to the terminology around modality - I’d describe it as digitally-facilitated - in that the experience was not one in which digital technologies were omitted, but one in which they played a largely supplementary role.
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