Change takes time

This week the UK has relaxed the lockdown restrictions, meaning we can hug family members and go to the pub. Actually in the pub. Should we want to.

Students can return to campus and now the talk is all about the future of the University experience and the question of what have we learned about working, studying, or learning in a fully remote environment. We’ve had an unexpected insight into what our fully remote students have been dealing with for years.

Conversations about what we can learn from this to make campus better for students, both the physical campus and the virtual, and spaces where they mix, abound – see my notes from last weeks’ AulaCon for some ideas. Changing the infrastructure and systems/platforms to make the most of this learning and experience is not going to be easy to get right, and certainly not get everything lined up as well as it is at the moment.

Here’s the crunch though … this kind of fundamental change takes time. Universities are not known for the speedy adoption of change, and certainly not at this level. Individuals, yes. Maybe even some dynamic or progressive departments, but not whole institutions. How an institution adapts to and adopts the change needed to survive in the changing market will determine how the current students view them, and how well they are positioned for new students (and not just the undergraduate market either, it’s all about lifelong learning now!).

I am looking forward to seeing how this will play out across the HE and FE sectors. Bring on the changes.

• This post is Day 34 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100DaysToOffload.com.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash