On September 1st and 2nd, the Times Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit was held online. Tsinghua University discussed and shared the prospects for post-pandemic higher education with leading thinkers from all over the world.
Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong delivered the remarks entitled “Renewal and Hope: Post-pandemic Trends in Higher Education” at the summit. He said 2020 was a watershed moment in history and a “new dawn” for higher education.
During the speech, President Qiu elaborated on the challenges that have emerged for higher education institution in 2020. He noted that these challenges, however, represented renewal of hope. He believed that as a result of the changes made in the face of these challenges, the university’s role in contributing to solving global challenges would become more prominent.
President Qiu argued that, due to the pandemic, there were many recent transformations to higher education. In the post-pandemic era, the university will be more open and integrative, more student-driven, smarter and more inclusive. World-class universities will lead with vigor.
“The pandemic will be the catalyst for even more profound changes in higher education. By working together, renewal and hope will see us through this unprecedented challenge,” Qiu said.
In a subsequent panel discussion, Tsinghua's Vice President and Provost Yang Bin shared examples that support the view that 2020 is a “new dawn” for higher education. Yang believed that global higher education was a big step closer to the realization of "hybrid education" which transcended merely "teaching" and "learning."
Based on Tsinghua’s practical experience, Yang Bin proposed that there were many emerging areas of improvement and optimism, particularly changes in the higher education landscape. He said that the development of online education modalities created more learner-oriented approaches, brought greater accessibility to education, and increased openness and transparency to higher education processes and outcomes.
“Although the pandemic has caused physical separation, it has led to a deeper appreciation of society’s indivisibility,” Yang said while elaborating some of the recent efforts made by universities around the world shouldering additional social responsibilities and engaging in front-line work to combat the pandemic. Yang also stressed that future education must achieve greater levels of inclusion and quality.
Susan McCahan, Vice-Provost of Academic Programs at the University of Toronto, said the blending of the virtual with the real classroom had the potential to reduce inequity, but also may promote it since some students had challenges in internet access and other ways of engagement. She was concerned about the identity of the university going forward in this kind of blended model.
Richard Miles, Vice-Provost of Academic Performance and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Education, Enterprise and Engagement at the University of Sydney, was concerned whether the blended model could cultivate students’ core human skills such as problem-solving, thinking critically, and working productively, which relied on quite a lot of face-to-face interaction. He said it was essential that universities kept developing tools to provide students from diverse backgrounds.
Clay Shirky, Vice-Provost for Educational Technologies at New York University proposed that “the human capital involved in online education” was no different from in-person teaching and required specialist IT infrastructures well, “there are no immediate cost savings.
The representatives also discussed other issues, including online course tuition, universities’ new relationship with society, and universities’ opportunities and responsibilities in the future.
The THE World Academic Summit brought together pre-eminent global thought leaders across higher education, research, industry, and government to share best practices and innovation in world-class universities and research. It was also an excellent opportunity to showcase Tsinghua and other Chinese universities’ responses to the pandemic and engage in an open discussion on post-pandemic higher education to the world.
Reporters: Feng Zheying, Liu Shutian
Editors: John Olbrich, John Paul Grima, Haroon Hayat
