Higher Education to 2030
What futures for quality access in the era of globalisation?
How might new technologies and pedagogies contribute to
quality access in the future?
ICT for lifelong leaning
Maruja Gutiérrez Díaz
Head of Unit Creativity and Innovation
DG Education and Culture
Three starting premises
• LLL is an accepted paradigm but not yet a
key objective for HE
• the all-encompassing learning environment
requested by the knowledge society cannot
become true without HE
• the all-encompassing learning environment
requested by the knowledge society cannot
become true without ICT
HE & ICT: Three core action areas
• The future of HE: steering change
• HE for life: Continuing professional development
• Exploiting the learning potential of ICT:
Innovative learning tools and methods
What HE delivers in all three areas will not only
significantly improve HE, but it will also in time
“overspill” in the general learning infrastructure
The future of HE: which scenario?
Open Networking?
• Flexibility and autonomy, for students and for institutions
• New approaches to teaching, more individualised
• Strengthened international cooperation,
• Availability of free and open knowledge
• Still a strong hierarchy among HE institutions,
• ICT networking allows institutions not focused on
research to benefit from advances in knowledge
…only with ICT
A lifelong learning scenario
• Open Networking is not just an HE scenario
• A consistent lifelong learning approach can be
developed along the same principles:
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new approaches to teaching, increased flexibility
user-centred, more autonomy for students
support and exploitation of new technologies,
increased networking of institutions and of publicprivate partnerships between education stakeholders
– improved access opportunities allow those with fewer
resources to benefit from advances in knowledge
Continuing professional development
• Possibly the most important part of LLL, it should be
associated to initial qualification
• Some countries/professions already request periodical
formal proof of updated competences
• Professional publishing and internet use point to a
strong and growing demand for CPD support
• Academy has always made a virtue of continuing
learning, yet it does not apply the same criteria to its
“clients”
• CPD could be a substantial new business for HE
• ICT are particularly suited for CPD learning demand
Innovative learning tools and resources
• Understanding learning and learners: focused
learning, personalised learning, contextual learning
• Understanding and exploiting what is already available:
efficient & imaginative use of existing tools
• Appropriation and use of advanced learning tools:
simulation, virtual reality, visualisation, games…
• Research on new learning tools: brain research,
multilingual and multicultural issues, learning design,
user involvement
Addressing new learning needs
• In new knowledge domains
– Edge disciplines are increasingly important in HE
– It is important to attract young people to them
• For new ways of using knowledge
– Pluri-disciplinar approaches
– Team-based work, multicultural-multilingual contexts
• Serving new users’ needs
– New Millennium learners
– Experienced learners, lifelong learners
– Mobile learners (geographical, cultural, professional)
Some difficult challenges
A quality learning infrastructure, user-oriented
and widely accessible can be built with ICT but it
requires
• New business models, public and private, for profit or
not-for-profit, addressing IPR
• New access and delivery models
• New teaching and learning services models
• Social acceptance of radical changes – in particular of
sensitive linguistic interplays
• Pedagogical and technological research
A particular education problem
Failing to capitalize on the application of ICT
Productivity growth has in recent years been driven
mainly by the ICT-using services sector and it is
precisely here that the difference is most obvious
- productivity growth in the EU is relatively stable
across time in contrast to a very large acceleration
in the USA as it successfully applies ICT.
Creating an innovative Europe – Aho Report, 2006
Three striking findings
• the impact of ICT on education and training has not yet
been as great as had been expected. In particular, the
transformation of business and public services through
ICT has not yet reached education systems;
• embedding ICT in education and training systems at all
levels requires further technological, organisational, and
pedagogical changes at classrooms, workplaces, and
informal learning settings;
• although ICT has the potential to develop a “learning
continuum” that would support lifelong learning and
embrace formal, informal and workplace learning, this
has not yet happened
The use of ICT to support innovation and lifelong learning for all
SEC(2008)2629
Capitalizing ICT: a challenge for HE?
• ICT equipment and infrastructures are becoming mature,
accessible and affordable
• User-centred /user-owned/ user-created learning and
online services are reaching a critical mass
• An intelligent use of ICT for learning and teaching can
greatly enhance the new skills required for new jobs
• In particular, ICT have proven useful for supporting and
developing creative and entrepreneurial attitudes, which
are at the base of a capacity for innovation
Our future depends on innovation
“In a remarkably short period of time,
economic globalisation has changed the
world economic order, bringing new
opportunities and new challenges.
In this new economic order, Europe cannot
compete unless it becomes more inventive,
reacts better to consumer needs and
preferences and innovates more.
A broad-based innovation strategy for the European Union COM(2006)502
It all hinges on human capital…
Everywhere in the world, intangible capital is the
most precious resource for advanced economies.
Without it, traditional and financial resources, as
well as fixed capital, will become decreasing
resources. No nation can believe it has achieved a
high quality of development if its human capital
remains hidden or is under-used
European Commission, 2007
…this is, on education
“Without education as a core policy, innovation will
remain unsupported”. It must promote talent and
creativity from an early stage.
Innovation is the missing element in the scenario HE has a
crucial role for innovation, in all areas of knowledge,
from humanities to advanced science, and in all sectors of
society, public and private. Innovation is based on the
transfer of knowledge and ICT provides unprecedented
opportunities for it.
A broad-based innovation strategy for the European Union COM(2006)502
The role of the European Union
• EU countries are immersed in a dynamic process
of change and modernisation of HE
• Some interesting changes are happening at the
European level: Bologna, EQF, multilingualism
• There is a strong political support in Europe for
developing innovative HE and LLL strategies
• The EU can well be a “futures lab” for HE in the
knowledge society…
• …but the transformation of HE is a global trend
and a global vision needs to be developed
Thank you for your attention!
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