policy & reform students had signed up for its courses. Although many of these students may not progress past the first lesson, tens of thousands of them are attending each course and receiving education from some of the world’ s best professors.
Coursera is run by a team of just 20 people, including 13 from Stanford. There are now more than 30 universities offering courses on the platform.
The other major player, iTunes U, launched in May 2007. Apple announced it exceeded 1 billion downloads this February, with over 250,000 enrolled students and 1200 universities and colleges on the service.
Australian universities have embraced iTunes U. La Trobe University has over 1400 lectures and resources online, and 14 full courses, including The European Union in the New Millennium and Press and Society. In September 2012, the institution exceeded 1 million downloads for the first time and The Roman World became the third LaTrobe course on iTunes U to achieve more than 50,000 subscribers. The courses provide a taste test of the university experience in the hope that this will lead to fee-paying students.
So why put all this effort into something that the universities provide for free?
In an interview last year with The Age, Swinburne University of Technology pro vice-chancellor professor Gilly Salmon said universities might agree to allow free access to their resources because of altruism or the chance to feature their academic work to the world.( Swinburne has now done so, see“ Swinburne joins the MOOC torrent”, p8.)
Free and open Whilst online course providers look for a commercial model that will support their offerings long term, a number of services are appearing that aim to disrupt education with altruistic motives.
Take Melbourne Free University as an example. The university provides a platform for learning, discussion and debate that is open to everyone. Its website describes its origins:“ The MFU was established in 2010 in response to Australia’ s increasingly outcome-oriented education system, and aims to offer space for independent engagement with important contemporary ideas and issues. There is no enrolment, no registration, no fee; you are free to come to any session.”
Another free education service has gained momentum in the US – the Khan Academy. The idea was put forward in 2004 when Salman Khan began tutoring his cousin, Nadia, on a challenging maths problem over the internet. In 2006, he moved the tutorials to YouTube. As of August 2013, he had more than 1.3 million subscribers and nearly 300 million lessons had been downloaded.
Students worldwide have been attracted to Khan’ s concise, practical and relaxed teaching method. In a recent interview, he explained his motives:“ With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can’ t imagine a better use of my time.”
To support increasingly open access to education, governments are putting in place initiatives to expand the sector.
Last September, at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting in Vladivostok County, Russia, APEC issued a joint statement on education that prioritised enhancing the mobility of students, researchers, and education providers across member economies. Building the regional strength of education and removing boundaries between countries also means greater cross-border recognition of qualifications. The APEC region contains some of the world’ s largest exporters and consumers of education services. Opportunities exist for a significant expansion of trade in education services to the benefit of all economies if the flow of students and researchers can be encouraged and transaction costs reduced.
This creates both opportunities and threats for Australia, where the system relies upon international student income.
There has already been significant reform in the higher education system locally, following the introduction of Transforming Australia’ s Higher Education System initiatives in 2009 in response to the Bradley Review. The reforms address a broad range of issues. Those focused on increased participation have a significant impact on university brands.
So what next? How do you manage a university brand within such a period of change in the sector? The first step is to recognise the brand’ s implications.
Online education changes the distribution method. It decreases or removes the tangible bricks-and-mortar aspect of the brand, as well as the human interaction.
The objective here is to look at how the physical interaction with the brand can still be maintained online, albeit in different ways. The winners will be those that create a sense of place and community around their offer.
Online education also means the identity of the student is hard to confirm for assessment and qualification. Open Universities Australia reached an important milestone in September, when 20 students graduated Curtin University’ s bachelor of education online course, after sitting their final exams on campus. Universities that are providing an online education offering will have a clear advantage in solving challenges and gaining recognition and trust in the space.
The rise in free education is good for humanity. The value of high-quality, free education that is highly accessible globally is inspiring and exciting. For university brands, the challenge is to think about where the value sits. Current free education from universities appears to be focused on marketing the experience of their brand. It provides a connection between student and university in a nonthreatening way that will hopefully lead to enrolment at a bricks-and-mortar campus. It also provides a way for universities to build online assets. Universities will come under increasing internal pressure to create a revenue stream from online products. Robust assessment and awarding of qualifications will be a key offline role universities can play in this space.
Opening up education for greater accessibility contrasts with a history that has its roots in elitism and status. Many universities will value this opportunity to broaden their net and increase income streams. The temptation to dilute the brand with a focus on quantity of students over quality of outcomes will be a key challenge to overcome. In contract, other universities will increase their elitist approach to enrolments, in juxtaposition to the mass education offerings. That elitism will, however, become increasingly difficult to uphold in the face of corporate social responsibility pressures.
Opening up to greater international competition will require a change in branding as well – the need for further differentiation. It was useful for universities to offer a wide range of courses when geography limited how far a student would travel for a given course. In the future, there will be increasing competition from global players with a reputation for excellence in specialised disciplines. To compete in such a market, universities will need to specialise, or focus on courses where there is value in customised local content.
Bricks-and-mortar campuses will always have a place in the education system. They allow students and lecturers to engage at a human level, developing leadership and social skills. However, current shifts in accessibility and education delivery are creating major change in the way we perceive and interact with our education brands.
At the end of the decade, we will see which universities have survived and prospered from this wave of change. n
Neil Shewan is the managing director of TANK Branding.
www. campusreview. com. au Issue 8 2013 | 19