British Universities Must Adapt to Survive - But how?

A new report by the Joint Information Systems Committee is warning that UK universities are set to lose their world-class status if they fail to embrace e-learning and online technologies. The research highlights that despite the top four British Universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and University College London) being included in the Top 10 learning institutions globally - they will not retain their reputation in a more competitive, more open and connected global environment unless they do more to adapt.

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) was established in 1993 as a joint advisory committee for the recently Higher Funding Councils of England, Wales and Scotland. Today the committee is far more dedicated to the promotion and inclusion of ICT to aid learning and research in the UK's universities. This most recent report comes at a time when universities are seeing a drastic cut in funding in addition to a projected increase in enrolments as school-leavers are more pessimistic about finding a job.

The report introduces the notion of ‘Edgeless Universities', a term borrowed from Robert Lang to describe sprawling cities. Today, higher education institutions are not contained within their campuses, but are connected and open via the internet, social networks, and collaborative online tools that give students and academics access to a wider range of sources, text, tools, and other peers which they can learn from.

The report also specifies that this is not a call to be rid of the notion of the university, but rather a reinterpretation of exactly what such an institution does. Campus universities are still needed in order to accredit students, to act as physical hubs for research, and to support local economies. University College London is cited as making moves to retain its traditional campus reputation, but is also forward thinking in regards to how it is publishing all its research online for free access to anybody. However, where this seems progressive to many - such moves have already been in place by similar institutions in France and the US for some time.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the report concerns allowing for a very different demographic. The number of enrolments is set to increase, but as the JISC highlight - this will not merely involve an influx of post-teenagers with a suitcase set to leave in three years holding a degree. Institutions need to allow for a high proportion of older students (aged between 30 and 39) embarking on part-time courses, such as marketing and business online, as they seek to improve their CVs - whilst an increasing number of more technologically-minded Generation Y students will also be enrolling with an amount of knowledge of today's technology that no doubt surpasses that of the professors that are teaching them.

Sarah Maple is writing for Kaplan Open Learning about distance learning courses.