VC’s corner
campusreview.com.au
Shining a light
The opportunities and
challenges presented by the
‘new normal’ for universities.
By Jim Nyland
The global pandemic we speak of
as coronavirus has been declared
a “force majeure’’. It overrides
previous considerations and requires the
cancellation of what we know and have
accepted as ‘normal’.
It comes in the footsteps of Australian
environmental catastrophes such as droughts
and bushfires. It may yet come to be seen as
another harbinger of the impending crises of
global warming, sea level rises and pollution
of our lakes, rivers, seas and land on a truly
gargantuan and world scale.
It follows the persistence of the
unresolved ‘wicked issues’ (Firth, V.
Transform: 2018) which bedevil our
societies and debase our cultures. We
are talking about debilitating poverty,
over-population, obscene and bizarre
inequalities of housing, income, health and
death and disease rates which give the lie
to the simple notion that we are all in this
together and we all live in one world!
As capitalism itself was placed in
intensive care and whole economies
and social systems of every stripe and
sort were declared closed and locked
down, governments everywhere declared
themselves to be in the hands of the
scientists and health experts.
Decisions and understanding would
come from science-based knowledge and
the social and political decisions needed
to combat the evil would be in the general
interests of everyone.
‘We are all in this together’ – was a
sentiment widely desired and shared. The
Aussie spirit of ‘mateship’ was invoked,
echoing similar nation-strengthening
sentiments everywhere.
Yet coronavirus is not the existential
threat of planetary disaster which rising
temperatures and sea levels, environmental
degradation beyond repair and the
destruction of the earth’s atmosphere
portend. These remain the reality for our
future generations who are currently in
our schools, colleges and universities.
Coronavirus can be tackled and defeated,
eventually. All that this will take will be
resources, human ingenuity, effort directed
internationally and money – all of which we
have in abundance, though not sufficiently
or equally distributed at present.
Climate change on a world scale,
the wilful destruction of our rainforests,
disastrous carbon levels in our atmosphere
and the destruction of marine life in
our oceans are another matter, as are
eradicating the obscene poverty in
developing nations and addressing the
migrating millions seeking a better life.
What is new about the coronavirus
pandemic is that our focus and attention
has been shifted. We have been forced to
confront a deadly disease but one that can
be combatted. This is our opportunity to
begin to ask the questions about solutions
for the greater and ultimately more
destructive problems around the notion
of sustainable development and social
co-operation.
If it was true in the past that wealth and
membership of an advanced nation gave
you immunity to world-wide epidemics
and ‘events’, it is now clearly not the case.
What people expect of government and
maybe even of themselves will change
under the impact of these forces and the
questions that arise from them. What will
this ‘new normal’ look like for our Australian
universities?
There are choices to be made and
debates to be held on what should
frame and help organise the response
to this situation of crisis by HE. There is,
however, at least one commonly held
perspective: higher education is of great
if not paramount national importance –
economically, socially and politically.
Much of it can only exist with government
support and there are few if any individuals
or communities that deny the strategic
significance of learning to their futures.
However, when addressing the concrete
issues of what is to be done it is probably
clear that a range of practical matters will
come to the fore for universities:
• tuition restructured and re-ordered to
reflect the ‘new reality’ of students’ lives
• more flexible attendance and use of
distance learning
• on-line learning and tuition reconfigured
to include face-to-face and remote
contact
• independent learning re-assessed as a
curriculum objective
• more creative and ‘fair’ distance
assessments
• less institutional financial dependency on
international/out-of-country students, and
• more opportunities for distance students
to be socially active and engaged in the
university.
Many of these adaptive procedures will
inevitably involve the further extension
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