what is the purpose of the University in
fact I’m going to ask my other question
for you to think about what is the
purpose of a university degree now I’ve
been working in the higher education
industry for over 20 years now and over
that 20 years I’ve seen massive change
most changes that we’re witnessing are
really complex there are so many parties
groups involved in this industry that we
call higher education there are
governments that provide the funding and
the policy that drives what happens in
universities University Management
there’s industry there’s teachers and
academics there’s students and I think
the students are really a very important
part of the equation here that we need
to to really have a closer look at
because the way in which students treat
their university education the way they
perceive the importance of a university
degree I think is a measure of how
healthy the higher education system is
so I’d like to share with you a little
example a little example of a
communication I recently had with one of
my potential students I teach into a
business course I teach a marketing
subject and I recently received an email
from a student that went along the lines
of this
and I’ve copy and pasted word-for-word
exactly how the email exchange took
place here hi can you give me some
insight and details about this subject
I’m taking a banking and finance major
and wonder if I’m suitable to take this
as one of my electives is it a difficult
subject so I replied hi it will be
difficult but that’s what makes it a
good unit to study you’ll get a lot of
practical knowledge but you’ll have to
work hard throughout semester a lot of
people choose it simply because it
doesn’t have an exam
but that’s that’s not a good reason
because it’s a lot of work
why are you considering it and the reply
came back thanks for the advice yeah I’m
looking for another elective and I’m
interested in marketing electives can
you recommend me which marketing
electives that is available this
semester I’m just looking for a not
difficult elective Thanks please next
weigh in on the keyboard
so my response why do you want one
that’s not difficult surely relevant to
your future career would be a better
criteria and the response absolutely
floored me I don’t need a subject that’s
relevant to my future career as I’m
going to continue my father’s business
which has no relevance in my studies
this is a business course it’s father’s
business so you’re all sitting there
asking the question that I had to ask
which I did so why are you studying and
the response was just to have a degree
sir thank you I couldn’t resist my final
reply that I sent to this student if
it’s just for a degree then I can’t help
you I want my students to be motivated
to learn rather than just looking for
shortcuts please do not enroll in mine
you know he didn’t I hope he find a
really easy unit somewhere else even if
it’s completely irrelevant to me good
luck and he did and he was polite he
sent a reply back okay sir thank you for
word-for-word that is how the
communication progressed now I’ve got to
ask the question what is the student
thinking why are they studying what’s
their focus this is an example and it’s
just one example it’s the tip of the
iceberg and I’m saying this as a trend
more and more that students are studying
not to learn but to gain a qualification
they see themselves as consumers
buying a degree when in fact what they
should be doing is studying to learn be
passionate about learning and
understanding the world in which they
live and the qualification will then
come out of that so this big shift is
happening the shift where students see
themselves as being involved in a
transaction paying money to receive a
degree as opposed to building a lifelong
relationship and passion for learning
we’re seeing this big shift along this
continuum now I know what you might be
thinking you might be sitting there
right now thinking that’s not like me
I’m not like that student well when I
I see cracks appearing in the system
beyond just this one email exchange you
can read any news article on a regular
basis we’re seeing news regularly being
pumped out articles such as this we’re
seeing and dropout rates from university
courses getting higher and higher every
year and even those students that stay
enrolled and complete their degrees
they’re becoming less engaged with the
learning process saying in the 20 plus
years that I’ve been teaching attendance
in classes is plummeting dropping
further and further all the time and the
most frightening story that were often
seeing in the media stories such as this
where students the main thing they
perceive they’re getting out of a degree
is a massive hex debt okay with very few
employment opportunities now these are
all perceptions perceptions that the
media sure is fueling but I see it as
all part of the trend this trend towards
perceiving education as a commodity that
we buy rather than something that we buy
into for our lives now it’s not all bad
news there are some things that
universities actually do really really
well
universities ultimately are about
generating and disseminating knowledge
they conduct research and that research
feeds into industry industries thrive
from a lot of information that comes out
of universities in the research that
universe
these are producing the other thing that
universities do well is this process of
credentialing confirming to industry
that the graduates that come out of
university courses have the skills the
knowledge and the ability to perform as
a member of the industry or society or
the world in which we live and that
world is changing it’s changing very
very rapidly but still we see this thing
happening here with with people moving
along this continuum from where I
believe there should be at learning
so what’s changed and you can spend days
weeks months of your life looking at TED
Talks talking about how society is
changing and how we need to recognize
that change is happening all around us
but higher education universities have
been around for hundreds of years and
universities haven’t changed a lot over
those hundreds of years there are
artifacts that exist in higher education
that really haven’t changed that
probably mean two things such as
lectures that ironic that I’m giving a
lecture right now
things such as degrees a three-year
degree that people study when they turn
eighteen and for three or four years and
then they go off and build a career
things such as timetables that are
inflexible things such as long-form
content and when it’s that long form it
might be a three year degree a three
month semester a three-hour lecture they
are all long form compared to the way we
so what we’re seeing is this old archaic
system that doesn’t match the needs of
today’s student today’s industry today’s
society I think higher education can
learn a thing or two from other
industries other industries that have
faced obsolescence as a result of the
change happening in society or the
changes happening in society so let me
share a little story with you
unrelated to higher education but there
will be
link you’ll see a little later I’m gonna
take you back in time to when I was a
teenager that’s a long time ago now I’m
gonna take you back to the 1970s effect
the late 1970s unlike most teenagers I
loved music listened to a lot of
commercial radio the top 40 songs and so
on and there was a an up-and-coming band
back in the late 1970s that I I really
like listening to on commercial radio
you may have heard of them they called
Fleetwood Mac back in the late seventies
they were in the album in the studio
recording a new double album double
album was called tusk some of you may
know of tusk but it was the title track
from this double album that was getting
all the play on the radio and I loved it
it was unique it had a really cool drum
beat and I thought wow that music is
great so what I did was start saving up
my pocket money I thought I’m gonna go
and buy that album so $15 later I went
down to brushes I think it was where I
bought my vinyl records back in those
days
$15 was a lot of money for a teenager
there I was I bought the vinyl album
riding my bike back home with it and
thought I’m gonna lie on the living room
floor and listen to this new record and
you know what I was really disappointed
I actually felt ripped off and you know
why because 19 of those 20 tracks were
awful I didn’t like them I spent 15
dollars buying this double album just
for one track
I felt deceived by a system that made me
buy a bundle when all I wanted was just
one small part of that bundle I’ve got
the same those are the 19 tracks today I
actually like listening to them back
then I didn’t it’s fast fall in time 20
years it’s not junk 40 years ahead yet
let’s jump for 20 years 1999 you may be
familiar with a product that was
launched in 1999 I’m calling it a
product was called Napster some of you
may not stir was a peer-to-peer
file-sharing
network that specialized in one
particular type of file mp3s music
Napster was all about illegal sharing of
music and the music industry looked at
this and said oh my god we’ve got a
problem here now the problem obviously
was they could see their revenues drying
up suddenly they were going to not make
any money because people would be
sharing and music amongst each other not
paying for it anymore
but why did people want to do that it
wasn’t only because it was free it was
because it was unbundled it was
convenient and it was available to
people when and where they wanted it now
the music industry fought back the only
way they knew how to they fought back by
willing in their lawyers big artists
like Metallica Madonna I employed there
their lawyers to shut down Napster and
that happen Napster shut down after a
couple of years however let’s
fast-forward another couple of decades
to today and as you’re aware today the
music industry is thriving it’s thriving
because of services such as Spotify
Google Play Apple music so we’ve come
through this industry has come through
these problems and reached a point where
it is now thriving and we’re consuming
more music than ever before and we’re
paying for it through services such as
this at least many of us are an
increasing number of us are so it’s a
completely transformed industry that’s
been transformed through a process of
unbundling satisfying customers needs on
demand and doing it in a convenient way
but back to education what can education
learn from what’s happened in the music
industry I think we can learn a lot each
of these three things here think about
education maybe we need to unbundle
education rather than saying as an 18
year old you study for three or four
years then you go and get a career maybe
that’s the wrong way to think about it
think of when you have a need for skills
and knowledge throughout your life it’s
not just in your early 20s it’s right
through your career and think about how
you want to learn you want to do it in
ways it’s going to fit with your
lifestyle now a classic example of this
I teach into a business course and as
part of all business courses around the
world we teach a thing called management
now many graduates aren’t gonna be
working in management roles until maybe
five ten or more years after they
graduate wouldn’t be nice if we could
unravel this complicated bundle which
fits into three years and stretch it
across someone’s lifetime so by forming
a long-term relationship with a network
of universities and others industry and
so on they can deep in and out of their
education as their career progresses
because those are aware many of the jobs
that we are all going to be working into
the next five or ten years some don’t
even exist today
so by unbundling the content making it
available on demand in convenient format
this is large-scale change it’s not
going to be easy to fix so who should
drive this change who should be
responsible for making the change oh I
don’t have the answers here at least I
don’t have all of them but I do believe
together all of us when I say all of us
I mean governments governments that set
policy and decide how to fund higher
education they have to start thinking
longer-term
about the needs of society students in
industry there’s employers employers
they’re the ultimate beneficiaries of
the higher education system they should
start demanding more from universities
and universities themselves university
management should have the guts to say
the way we’re doing it isn’t right how
can we unbundle this package that we’re
currently offering to make it more
suitable but only the students but to
industry academic staff and everyone
that’s
system academic staff the teachers need
to stop and think about how they can
engage their students in better ways
that meet the students needs and most
importantly students students are
incredibly powerful in this process as
students you are customers that have a
very loud voice and you guys need to
start speaking up if you see something
that’s not right you’re part of the
solution and demanding change
so together whether you’re a student
whether an academic member of staff with
University Management an employer out in
industry or government it’s time to
start thinking about change thank you [Applause]
fact I’m going to ask my other question
for you to think about what is the
purpose of a university degree now I’ve
been working in the higher education
industry for over 20 years now and over
that 20 years I’ve seen massive change
most changes that we’re witnessing are
really complex there are so many parties
groups involved in this industry that we
call higher education there are
governments that provide the funding and
the policy that drives what happens in
universities University Management
there’s industry there’s teachers and
academics there’s students and I think
the students are really a very important
part of the equation here that we need
to to really have a closer look at
because the way in which students treat
their university education the way they
perceive the importance of a university
degree I think is a measure of how
healthy the higher education system is
so I’d like to share with you a little
example a little example of a
communication I recently had with one of
my potential students I teach into a
business course I teach a marketing
subject and I recently received an email
from a student that went along the lines
of this
and I’ve copy and pasted word-for-word
exactly how the email exchange took
place here hi can you give me some
insight and details about this subject
I’m taking a banking and finance major
and wonder if I’m suitable to take this
as one of my electives is it a difficult
subject so I replied hi it will be
difficult but that’s what makes it a
good unit to study you’ll get a lot of
practical knowledge but you’ll have to
work hard throughout semester a lot of
people choose it simply because it
doesn’t have an exam
but that’s that’s not a good reason
because it’s a lot of work
why are you considering it and the reply
came back thanks for the advice yeah I’m
looking for another elective and I’m
interested in marketing electives can
you recommend me which marketing
electives that is available this
semester I’m just looking for a not
difficult elective Thanks please next
weigh in on the keyboard
so my response why do you want one
that’s not difficult surely relevant to
your future career would be a better
criteria and the response absolutely
floored me I don’t need a subject that’s
relevant to my future career as I’m
going to continue my father’s business
which has no relevance in my studies
this is a business course it’s father’s
business so you’re all sitting there
asking the question that I had to ask
which I did so why are you studying and
the response was just to have a degree
sir thank you I couldn’t resist my final
reply that I sent to this student if
it’s just for a degree then I can’t help
you I want my students to be motivated
to learn rather than just looking for
shortcuts please do not enroll in mine
you know he didn’t I hope he find a
really easy unit somewhere else even if
it’s completely irrelevant to me good
luck and he did and he was polite he
sent a reply back okay sir thank you for
word-for-word that is how the
communication progressed now I’ve got to
ask the question what is the student
thinking why are they studying what’s
their focus this is an example and it’s
just one example it’s the tip of the
iceberg and I’m saying this as a trend
more and more that students are studying
not to learn but to gain a qualification
they see themselves as consumers
buying a degree when in fact what they
should be doing is studying to learn be
passionate about learning and
understanding the world in which they
live and the qualification will then
come out of that so this big shift is
happening the shift where students see
themselves as being involved in a
transaction paying money to receive a
degree as opposed to building a lifelong
relationship and passion for learning
we’re seeing this big shift along this
continuum now I know what you might be
thinking you might be sitting there
right now thinking that’s not like me
I’m not like that student well when I
I see cracks appearing in the system
beyond just this one email exchange you
can read any news article on a regular
basis we’re seeing news regularly being
pumped out articles such as this we’re
seeing and dropout rates from university
courses getting higher and higher every
year and even those students that stay
enrolled and complete their degrees
they’re becoming less engaged with the
learning process saying in the 20 plus
years that I’ve been teaching attendance
in classes is plummeting dropping
further and further all the time and the
most frightening story that were often
seeing in the media stories such as this
where students the main thing they
perceive they’re getting out of a degree
is a massive hex debt okay with very few
employment opportunities now these are
all perceptions perceptions that the
media sure is fueling but I see it as
all part of the trend this trend towards
perceiving education as a commodity that
we buy rather than something that we buy
into for our lives now it’s not all bad
news there are some things that
universities actually do really really
well
universities ultimately are about
generating and disseminating knowledge
they conduct research and that research
feeds into industry industries thrive
from a lot of information that comes out
of universities in the research that
universe
these are producing the other thing that
universities do well is this process of
credentialing confirming to industry
that the graduates that come out of
university courses have the skills the
knowledge and the ability to perform as
a member of the industry or society or
the world in which we live and that
world is changing it’s changing very
very rapidly but still we see this thing
happening here with with people moving
along this continuum from where I
believe there should be at learning
so what’s changed and you can spend days
weeks months of your life looking at TED
Talks talking about how society is
changing and how we need to recognize
that change is happening all around us
but higher education universities have
been around for hundreds of years and
universities haven’t changed a lot over
those hundreds of years there are
artifacts that exist in higher education
that really haven’t changed that
probably mean two things such as
lectures that ironic that I’m giving a
lecture right now
things such as degrees a three-year
degree that people study when they turn
eighteen and for three or four years and
then they go off and build a career
things such as timetables that are
inflexible things such as long-form
content and when it’s that long form it
might be a three year degree a three
month semester a three-hour lecture they
are all long form compared to the way we
so what we’re seeing is this old archaic
system that doesn’t match the needs of
today’s student today’s industry today’s
society I think higher education can
learn a thing or two from other
industries other industries that have
faced obsolescence as a result of the
change happening in society or the
changes happening in society so let me
share a little story with you
unrelated to higher education but there
will be
link you’ll see a little later I’m gonna
take you back in time to when I was a
teenager that’s a long time ago now I’m
gonna take you back to the 1970s effect
the late 1970s unlike most teenagers I
loved music listened to a lot of
commercial radio the top 40 songs and so
on and there was a an up-and-coming band
back in the late 1970s that I I really
like listening to on commercial radio
you may have heard of them they called
Fleetwood Mac back in the late seventies
they were in the album in the studio
recording a new double album double
album was called tusk some of you may
know of tusk but it was the title track
from this double album that was getting
all the play on the radio and I loved it
it was unique it had a really cool drum
beat and I thought wow that music is
great so what I did was start saving up
my pocket money I thought I’m gonna go
and buy that album so $15 later I went
down to brushes I think it was where I
bought my vinyl records back in those
days
$15 was a lot of money for a teenager
there I was I bought the vinyl album
riding my bike back home with it and
thought I’m gonna lie on the living room
floor and listen to this new record and
you know what I was really disappointed
I actually felt ripped off and you know
why because 19 of those 20 tracks were
awful I didn’t like them I spent 15
dollars buying this double album just
for one track
I felt deceived by a system that made me
buy a bundle when all I wanted was just
one small part of that bundle I’ve got
the same those are the 19 tracks today I
actually like listening to them back
then I didn’t it’s fast fall in time 20
years it’s not junk 40 years ahead yet
let’s jump for 20 years 1999 you may be
familiar with a product that was
launched in 1999 I’m calling it a
product was called Napster some of you
may not stir was a peer-to-peer
file-sharing
network that specialized in one
particular type of file mp3s music
Napster was all about illegal sharing of
music and the music industry looked at
this and said oh my god we’ve got a
problem here now the problem obviously
was they could see their revenues drying
up suddenly they were going to not make
any money because people would be
sharing and music amongst each other not
paying for it anymore
but why did people want to do that it
wasn’t only because it was free it was
because it was unbundled it was
convenient and it was available to
people when and where they wanted it now
the music industry fought back the only
way they knew how to they fought back by
willing in their lawyers big artists
like Metallica Madonna I employed there
their lawyers to shut down Napster and
that happen Napster shut down after a
couple of years however let’s
fast-forward another couple of decades
to today and as you’re aware today the
music industry is thriving it’s thriving
because of services such as Spotify
Google Play Apple music so we’ve come
through this industry has come through
these problems and reached a point where
it is now thriving and we’re consuming
more music than ever before and we’re
paying for it through services such as
this at least many of us are an
increasing number of us are so it’s a
completely transformed industry that’s
been transformed through a process of
unbundling satisfying customers needs on
demand and doing it in a convenient way
but back to education what can education
learn from what’s happened in the music
industry I think we can learn a lot each
of these three things here think about
education maybe we need to unbundle
education rather than saying as an 18
year old you study for three or four
years then you go and get a career maybe
that’s the wrong way to think about it
think of when you have a need for skills
and knowledge throughout your life it’s
not just in your early 20s it’s right
through your career and think about how
you want to learn you want to do it in
ways it’s going to fit with your
lifestyle now a classic example of this
I teach into a business course and as
part of all business courses around the
world we teach a thing called management
now many graduates aren’t gonna be
working in management roles until maybe
five ten or more years after they
graduate wouldn’t be nice if we could
unravel this complicated bundle which
fits into three years and stretch it
across someone’s lifetime so by forming
a long-term relationship with a network
of universities and others industry and
so on they can deep in and out of their
education as their career progresses
because those are aware many of the jobs
that we are all going to be working into
the next five or ten years some don’t
even exist today
so by unbundling the content making it
available on demand in convenient format
this is large-scale change it’s not
going to be easy to fix so who should
drive this change who should be
responsible for making the change oh I
don’t have the answers here at least I
don’t have all of them but I do believe
together all of us when I say all of us
I mean governments governments that set
policy and decide how to fund higher
education they have to start thinking
longer-term
about the needs of society students in
industry there’s employers employers
they’re the ultimate beneficiaries of
the higher education system they should
start demanding more from universities
and universities themselves university
management should have the guts to say
the way we’re doing it isn’t right how
can we unbundle this package that we’re
currently offering to make it more
suitable but only the students but to
industry academic staff and everyone
that’s
system academic staff the teachers need
to stop and think about how they can
engage their students in better ways
that meet the students needs and most
importantly students students are
incredibly powerful in this process as
students you are customers that have a
very loud voice and you guys need to
start speaking up if you see something
that’s not right you’re part of the
solution and demanding change
so together whether you’re a student
whether an academic member of staff with
University Management an employer out in
industry or government it’s time to
start thinking about change thank you [Applause]
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