Higher Education Must Reach More People

Answers to questions left unanswered in the last #FutureTalks about higher Education with Ángel Cabrera on July 1. There were many questions left unanswered in the #FutureTalks about Education with Angel Cabrera. We have sent the questions to our trustee, and these are his answers.

At the event we talked about:

The New Way of Teaching a Class Digitally

The pending questions are:

Do you believe that current technology in the classroom enables a thorough and high-quality evaluation of the knowledge gained by the students?

How will you encourage your faculty to contribute additional value in the classroom to compare with a video-recorded masterclass?

Should there be a limit to online course attendance to leave room for the student-teacher relationship?

Are we geared towards a hybrid, unspecialized, holistic type of training?

Angel Cabrera responds that: “the pandemic has increased our awareness of the advantages and limitations of each medium of instruction. We are no longer afraid, and we have eliminated the stigma associated to remote tools. But we no longer give high praise to the traditional classroom. We have figured out that the classroom and the IT tools are just that, (technological) tools that meet a need. In the next few years, innovation will focus on combining tools and technologies to optimize learning and to adapt to the needs and lifestyles of different demographic groups. This will require structural changes to our institutions, and greater flexibility and continuous innovation on the side of the faculty.

Alumni Reskilling

Questions such as:

What is your opinion of tech bootcamps for upskilling and reskilling? They have taken the US by storm to provide tech talent, and in Spain they are getting started.

Bootcamps are emerging as an intense training in digital skills. They focus on employability in less than one year. What is their impact on the traditional degrees in computer science?

Bootcamps have proven to be very effective to develop specific technical skills. Therefore, they will continue to play a role as a conduit for training and development. A college degree goes (or should go) beyond the development of specific technical skills. Higher education is meant to train critical citizens and consumers, it must inspire and start journeys, nurture relationships, and meet goals beyond the development of specific technical skills.

New University Model

The symbiosis between American education and corporations has created a win-win for EVERYONE!… Why is it so hard for Spain to create a similar model with its universities?

You mentioned that if you want to build a great city, you must first build a great university and wait for 100 years. What should we do to speed up the process?

Universal free access. Should the flipside be demanding from students an effort that justifies the use of public resources in education? Training the best professionals

A key goal in higher education must be reaching more people, eliminating the barriers of access, and supporting social justice, not just economic competitiveness. Better education benefits all of society. Excellence and competitiveness have prevailed over access in American universities. Therefore, the system has produced the best universities in the world… but also, the most expensive ones. The American system is facing profound access and social inequality problems, precisely because of this. Based on our experience with the Georgia Tech online Master’s, I am hopeful that technology and collaborations with the private sector will help reduce costs for students and expand access. We have reduced enrolment fees by an order of magnitude while maintaining quality, and we’ve created the best Computer Science Master’s Program in the world.

Technical Training

Rumor has it that Einstein would not have studied Physics in Spain, because studying Kant as a pre-enrollment requirement would have scared him away. What needs to change?

Now that the government is designing the new law for vocational training, what recommendations or advice would you offer for the future?

How could traineeships in technical degrees fit remote degree models?

The concept of a higher education limited to 4 to 5 years and good for life is something of the past. Education is and will increasingly be more necessary throughout our professional lives. There are increasingly more flexible models offering cumulative micro credentials, where each of us can find a tailor-made solution. The traditional university degrees will not disappear, but there will be a lot more options. You may start with some technical training because you need to join the labor force, and later finish a bachelor’s degree, to then continue with specific modules that may be eventually confer you a master’s degree. Remote or hybrid learning will enable very interesting combinations of work and learning. Once again, there is an opening to innovate on how learning is distributed, and how it is structured throughout a lifetime. I am not familiar with the details of the draft law on vocational training in Spain, but I do hope it contributes to increase learning opportunities throughout a lifetime.

Training Teachers For a New Reality In Education:

How can you train teachers to transition from the classroom to the screen?

Universities have been preaching for a while about how learning does not end at graduation, but rather, it takes place throughout a lifetime. It is time to take our own medicine and recognize that the faculty must learn and recycle their skills too. At Georgia Tech, we offer seminars to teachers on how to weave technology into teaching, and we will continue to create training opportunities for the faculty.

You are invited to watch again the #FutureTalks: