Higher Education Digest – October 2021 – International Edition – Higher Education in the Middle East

INTERNATIONAL EDITION MIDDLE EAST SPECIAL

OURIGINAL

MUST-WATCH EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR – 2021

www.highereducationdigest.com

FEATURING INSIDE

Prof. Chris Kinsville-Heyne Professor of Leadership & Strategy, Hult International Business School Dr. Khyati Shetty Campus Director, Focus College, British Columbia, Canada

1

Dr. Kiran S Nair Program Director-MBA and Associate Professor, Abu Dhabi School of Management Dr. Senthil Nathan Managing Director – Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi and Co-Founder, Edorer Inc., San Francisco Dr. Vaidyanathan Jayaraman Global Dean (UG) & Professor – Supply Chain Operations, Data Sciences & Analytics, SP Jain School of Global Management

DR MANSOOR AL AWAR

CHANCELLOR

HAMDAN BIN

M O H A M M ED

SMART UNIVER S IT Y RE-ENGINEERING

THE FUTURE OF HIGHER E D U C AT I O N OCTOBER 2021

Higher Education Digest October 2021

2

bit.ly/3kxB1EA

Follow us on social media!

Higher Education Digest October 2021

3

Higher Education Digest October 2021

October 2021

Vol - 3 Issue - 13

Higher Education in the Middle East Special Head of Advisory Board Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Andrew Scott Joseph Alex

Naomi Wilson Stanly Lui Emma James

Editorial Enquiry: admin@highereducationdigest.com

Art & Design

Charlie Jameson

Sales & Marketing

Jennifer Anderson Rachel Roy

Monica Davis Anna Elza

Sales Enquiry: admin@highereducationdigest.com

4

Subscription

www.highereducationdigest.com

International Representation London Connecta Global Ltd. 27, Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX, United Kingdom

GET THE MOBILE ISSUE

Higher Education Digest October March 2019 2021

Dubai Focus Innovation Technologies FZE P.O. Box 48299, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai, UAE Bangalore Connecta Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Carlton Towers, Old Airport Road, Bangalore - 560008 India Higher Education Digest is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in the content and pictures provided are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Connecta Innovation Private Limited or any of its members and we do not assume any responsibility. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the advertisements, its content, pictures, and all representation of warranties made in such advertisements are those of the advertisers and not of the publisher.

Higher Education Digest is a Free Subscription digital magazine strictly not for sale and has to be strictly for internal private use only. Publisher does not assume any responsibility arising out of anyone printing copy of this digital magazine in any format and in any country and all matters related to that.

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

The Middle East and the Era of Smart Universities

H

osting several high-profile global events, the Middle East is fast becoming one of the most happening places on the planet. However, education may not be the first thing that would come into our minds when thinking of the Middle East.

In fact, the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region that comprises 21 countries with a combined population of over 400 million – over 60% of which are under the age of 24 – has been an exporter of students. Now, the situation is changing. With the building of world-class universities and attracting international students worldwide, the Middle East is one of the fastest-growing regions for international education today.

Middle Eastern universities welcome a large population of international students every year. Most international students come from North America and enter programs to study public health, political science, public policy, and medicine. In fact, cities such as Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh even have a higher concentration of international students than local students. Unlike western countries, the universities in

the Middle East are young and technology-driven and do not stick to conventions. For instance, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, the first smart university in the United Arab Emirates, is committed to instigating a culture of quality, innovation, and research through smart learning, emphasising the academic disciplines of business, quality management, education, healthcare and environment.

In this issue, we feature Dr Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), on the cover.

In a conversation with Higher Education Digest, Dr Al Awar talks about Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University’s vision, learning approach, plans and much more. We have also included several insightful articles by industry experts and academic leaders who share their views on goalball education scenarios, with a particular focus on the Middle East’s higher education system.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest October 2021

5

ADVISORY BOARD Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc.

Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Dr. Venus M. Alboruto, PhD, Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB.

Master Teacher, Researcher, Innovator, Trainer.

Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com

6

Major General (Rtd.) Dr. Sunil Chandra, VSM (Vishishta Seva Medal), Ph.D, M. Phil, MA, M.Ed, PGBDA Ex-M D Army Welfare Education Society, ExCOO GEMS Education - India, Ex- Addl Dir Gen - Army Education, Mentor - Adventure-Pulse

Former Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Shanthi Rajan (MSHRM, FHEA, AMCILT) Director, Institution Development, University of Stirling, RAK Campus, UAE.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Chief Human Resources Officer, Former Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

Dr. Khyati Shetty

Ph.D (Marketing)., SFHEA (UK), MBA (Marketing), PGHRM, BA (Marketing & Economics)

7

Amazing Opportunity for Teachers and School Leaders to enhance their knowledge through FREE Teachers Academy masterclasses from international education experts !!!

For more details and registration www.teachersacademy.com

Higher Education Digest October 2021

COVER STORY

MA K ING H BMSU A H UB F OR SMART E DUCAT ION AN D T H E HOUSE OF Q UA LI T Y IN T HE ARA B R E GION AND GLOBA LLY Dr Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU)

12

COVER STORY

20

HAMDAN BIN MOHAMMED SMART UNIVERSITY Re-engineering the Future of Higher Education MUST-WATCH EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR - 2021

42

44 OURIGINAL

Making Plagiarism Prevention Easy Andreas Ohlson

C ONTES

MENTOR’S MANTRA BEST PRACTICES THAT ENHANCE QUALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCE IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS

28

Dr. Kiran S Nair, Program Director-MBA and Associate Professor, Abu Dhabi School of Management, Abu Dhabi, UAE

ACADEMIC VIEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AFTER K-12 GRADUATION – NOT ALL IS LOST IF YOU DO NOT PURSUE A DEGREE PROGRAM

38

Dr. Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Global Dean (UG) & Professor – Supply Chain Operations, Data Sciences & Analytics, SP Jain School of Global Management

CHANGES IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM TODAY

68

Prof. Steyn Heckroodt, Chief Thought Leader, PCL Learning

FORGET ABOUT THE THIRD SPACE: IT’S TIME WE RECOGNISE TEACHING & LEARNING SUPPORT AS A SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

72

Dr Kwong Nui Sim & Associate Professor Michael Cowling

NEED FOR LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY GUIDANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Professor Chris Kinsville-Heyne, Professor of Leadership & Strategy, Hult International Business School

80

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE WHY SHOULD UNIVERSITIES IN MENA REGION FOCUS ON MARKET RESEARCH?

34

Dr. Senthil Nathan, Managing Director – Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi and Co-Founder, Edorer Inc., San Francisco

52

HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Dr. Vidhya Vinod, Group President & CEO, Study World Education Holding Group

56

THE STAKE OF DIGITALIZATION AND PERSONALIZATION IN HOSPITALITY EDUCATION

Benoit-Etienne Domenget, CEO, Sommet Education

60

RE-IMAGINING THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION USING THE THREE HORIZON MODEL

Dr. Khyati Shetty, Campus Director, Focus College, British Columbia, Canada

64

HOW CAN DESIGNERS CHANGE THE SOCIETY?

76

Yan Garin, Country Head - India, Ecole Intuit Lab

INVESTING IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WILL FUTURE PROOF YOUR ORGANISATION – HERE’S WHY

Emellia Koukash, Managing Director, KC Academy

COV E R

STORY

MA K IN G HBM SU A HUB F OR SMA RT EDUCAT I ON A N D T HE HOUSE OF QUA LI T Y I N T HE A RA B REGION A N D GLOBA LLY Dr Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) Dr Mansoor Al Awar is the Chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohamed Smart University. He is also the Chairman of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) and a Member of the Executive Council of the Association of Arab Universities (AARU). Dr. Mansoor has served

12

as a chair for several awards related to innovation, leadership, education, and excellence, including Chair of jury for the Arab Government Excellence Award, the first round 2019, the Arab world’s most prestigious award under the umbrella of the League of Arab States in the field of Arab governance excellence, Chair of jury, Egypt Government Excellence Award since 2019, Chair of jury, Minister of Interior Excellence Award since it has been launched in 2011 (UAE) and Judge, Innovators Under 35 awards (IU35), launched by Dubai Future Foundation and MIT Technology Review Arabia.

Besides Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU), the region’s first university with smart learning approach, Dr. Al Awar has started, built and led several innovative enterprises, like Innovation Arabia, the annual scientific conference with a focus on innovation in the Arab world, First Quality Department at Dubai Police, including suggestion and self-assessment schemes and public opinion survey center, Emirates Business Women Award, at Dubai Quality Group, Middle East eLearning Association (MEEA) and Middle East Quality Association (MEQA).

Dr. Al Awar has received numerous awards and accolades: Golden Order of Merit, on Arab World Good Governance, and ICT & Knowledge CEO Excellence Award, etc. Dr Al Awar has also published several books on innovation management, leadership, higher education and quality. In a conversation with Higher Education Digest, Dr. Al Awar talks about Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University’s vision, learning approach, plans and much more.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

13

Higher Education Digest October 2021

14

Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University is the first smart university in the UAE. What was the vision behind establishing such a unique institution?

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai directed the establishment of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) nearly 19 years ago to redefine the future of higher education. His vision was to transform traditional education to advance the development of the future generations. The progress cannot be achieved without changing the traditional way of thinking in education and all its dimensions - way of delivery, curriculum, environment.

This was the inspiration and the keystone to launch Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University. The vision to re-imagine, re-think and re-engineer higher education is reflected in all aspects of HBMSU’s design and operations as we were the first one to implement this vision.

Since the inception, HBMSU has been thriving under the leadership of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and President of HBMSU, to pioneer a smart learning approach that would redirect the future of education and benefit individuals, organizations, and society.

Tell us about Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University’s learning approach and philosophy.

What makes its learning paradigm unique compared to other universities?

HBMSU is the first university in the Arab region that has adopted smart learning. The smart learning concept is,

Higher Education Digest October 2021

first and foremost, about accessibility. So many people in the Arab world have been deprived of the right to education and the current literacy rate in the Arab region of less than 85% is still lagging behind the world averages according to the UN indicators. Illiteracy is a very costly disease for the society as the knowledge disability affects the lives of people and jeopardizes their future. Smart education provides learning opportunities to all accessible at any place at any time. For this, HBMSU has developed a unique lifelong learning model which outreaches all age groups - from the age of 6 to 99 - when it comes to learning opportunities and enable them to gain knowledge and skills that they can use to contribute to the growth of the economy. At the same time, HBMSU focuses on adapting learning approaches to different ages taking into account specific needs and characteristics of different age groups. In the same way as a restaurant would offer its young guests a special kids’ menu, the smart pedagogical approach at the University implies that every learner is offered knowledge and learning modes that suit this particular learner the best. Quality is the second pillar of smart learning applied at HBMSU. Quality of all products, offerings and education in general is the focus of the learning paradigm established by HBMSU. The third pillar – affordability – has an enormous potential for re-engineering the higher education that will no longer be a luxury for students to pursue a life-changing degree. The traditional campus model implies many hidden costs in addition to high tuition fees, while smart education has a lot of comparative advantages being time and place flexible, thus providing much more affordable opportunities. Having been providing flexible learning

opportunities to all to study from anywhere at any time, HBMSU became the first hub of smart learning in the UAE and the MENA region.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the most significant challenges for educators? How did HBMSU support educators as a member of the UNESCO Global Education Coalition launched in response to the pandemic?

As teachers had been forced to rapidly move to online modes of delivery at all levels of education, we at HBMSU saw their struggle during the emergency closure of schools and universities and recognized the importance to assist teachers to ensure learning continuity by sharing our knowledge and expertise in online education. In partnership with the UAE’s Ministry of Education, we launched the survival kit for teachers: two crash courses for teachers in the UAE ‘Be an online tutor in 24 hours’ and ‘Design an online course in 24 hours’. Within the first two weeks after launching the courses, more than 70,000 teachers from public and private schools have been trained to apply online modes of teaching and learning, use available tools for conducting online lessons and organize distance education more efficiently and effectively.

Building on the success of the crash courses in the UAE and the Arab region, the University joined hands with UNESCO to help teachers around the globe. HBMSU was the first and only Arab university to join the Global Education Coalition launched

Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) Dubai is committed to instigate a culture of quality, innovation and research through smart learning, with emphasis on the academic disciplines of business, quality management, education, healthcare and environment.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

15

by UNESCO to respond to COVID-19 emergency and support countries in scaling up best distance learning practices. The coalition joined by HBMSU rallies the United Nations family, civil society organizations and major technology partners including Microsoft, Huawei, Google, and others to act together. It harnesses the expertise of public and private partners to help countries implement innovative and context-sensitive solutions to provide education remotely.

Following the unprecedented demand for HBMSU’s courses in English and Arabic, its versions in Russian, French and Spanish languages have been developed to help teachers from respective countries. The Russian version of the course ‘Be an Online Tutor in 24 Hours’ has been produced by HBMSU in partnership with UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE). Since the global launch of the crash courses, more than 330,000 educators from 102 countries have been trained how to teach online effectively.

Please tell us about HBMSU’s collaborations with global organizations and universities worldwide.

Since its inception, HBMSU has been built based on the “outsidein” approach: we came into existence with the great support from 12 “quality gurus” from all over the world – prominent

16

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University’s Lifelong Learning Model is designed to provide many forms and opportunities of education and learning experiences that combine both academic and non-academic programs and courses.

experts in the field of Total Quality Management who facilitated the soft launch of this project. Thus, the University have always recognized the importance of international cooperation both with individual experts and leading institutions. HBMSU has come to be known as the ‘House of Quality’ and our partner network currently includes all leaders in the field of quality management such as EFQM (the European Foundation for Quality Management), British Quality Foundation, etc. as well as global partners in the fields of smart learning and online education, including the Commonwealth of Learning, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, Asian Association of Open Universities, UNESCO IITE, and many others.

HBMSU is associated with many reputed academic and professional institutions because we strongly believe that the global collective effort in order to re-engineer the education is a must. This philosophy was evident when we invite our partners to Dubai in 2019 to launch the international consortium for Benchmarking Framework and Data Set for Online, Open, Smart and Technologyenhanced Higher Education. The consortium brings together leading online and open universities from around the world, including higher education associations and quality assurance institutions with the aim of collectively developing a benchmarking framework that would establish and promote a common understanding and criteria for quality in technology-enhanced higher education. This global initiative supports the ongoing efforts of online and open universities to assure the quality in online education and facilitate the achievement of the UN Sustainable development Goal on quality education. The consortium currently unites 18 members from all over the world – from Canada to New Zealand and continues to receive global support. The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), a leading international organization focused on online and distance education, has recently become the official partner of the project.

HBMSU continues to expand its network of partner institutions and collaborates with leading international organizations in accordance with the university’s strategic agenda. ‘Together we grow’ is one of the significant values we hold.

You are also the Chairman of the Governing Board of UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) and a board member of the Higher Education and Scientific Research Co-ordination Council in the UAE.

Being part of the global dialogue on the future of education, could you share with us what innovations should we expect in higher education in the coming years?

I am confident that we will witness an accelerated shift in all aspects of education in an effort to move away from traditional models of teaching and learning. At HBMSU, we prioritized digital transformation as one of the strategic directions of the University. We will continue to leverage innovation, creativity, technology, and scientific research to change the face of higher education in the region and help transform the UAE into becoming a world leader in innovation.

The revolutionary trend we advocate for and the concept which we will present in February next year at Expo 2020 is transforming education from ‘service’ to ‘utility’. This is a break-through approach to education which will be learner-driven, rather than institution-driven as was established in the past and still prevails in the higher education landscape. The new philosophy is based on the premise that education is a fundamental human right for everyone. In this context, “utility” means that all have access to it and learners can consume knowledge at their own pace and on-demand rather than as dictated by an institution. The concept will be presented by the University at Expo 2020 during the launch of HBMSU’s Cloud Campus, an innovative solution to provide learning for skills opportunities for everyone. HBMSU’s innovative endeavors aim to deliver equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

There has been an increase in the adoption of EdTech by higher education institutions across the world. How do you see this trend? Will all universities move to online teaching and learning?

While new technologies such as AI and Machine Learning, Big Data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will certainly have a great impact on education and change teaching and learning practices, I don’t think all higher education institutions will transform into online, open, or smart universities. The invention of a passenger plane and appearance of commercial airlines didn’t stop people from using ships. As with all inventions and innovations, there is a variety of reasons to choose different options while the transformation is on the way. One thing I am confident about is that learners will be in the driving seat of education, while we at universities should support the learning process with our knowledge and expertise.

I always give my students an example of universities

Higher Education Digest October 2021

17

18 serving the same way as Google Maps for its students: it won’t function unless you enter the direction. If you don’t follow the advice of Google Maps, you may get stuck in a traffic jam and it will take you longer to reach your destination. While such delay on the road can cost you 15 minutes; in the world of education, you can lose 15 years if you do not follow the guidance of your educators. At HBMSU, we strive to provide our learners with personalized and intellectually stimulating learner experiences to reach their goals.

Online education is one of the major trends and rapidly developing markets with the predicted value of 370 billion USD by 2026. While traditional universities will continue to exist providing people with different options, smart education is on the rise and going to continue its growth.

How is HBMSU encouraging innovation and creativity in students? What are the mechanisms adopted by HBMSU to support entrepreneurship among students?

One of the great impacts of smart education on students is that it gives learners self-confidence and

Higher Education Digest October 2021

HBMSU is a research-based University that has brought about a paradigm shift in smart education in Dubai by designing learner-centric solutions in its strategy.

19 independence: smart education is all about “pullsystem”, not “push-system”. At HBMSU, our learners are at the heart of our operations and are involved in decision-making processes. It means that the learner takes responsibility for his or her own education, which develops critical thinking and confidence.

We identified 5 major skills of HBMSU’s graduates: academic excellence; analytical skills, passion for knowledge which is necessary for research; communications skills; and national identity. These soft skills promoted at a university level are combined with specialized skills acquired by learners over their programs and courses of their choice. Such strategy is based on fundamental pillars of leadership change, passion for results, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

Following the directions of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, HBMSU pledged to graduate entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers and we successfully implement our commitment. Additionally, our faculty and learners work together with the local and international communities to develop top-caliber research and

deploy creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship for the sustainable development of the UAE and the rest of the world.

What are the next plans and projects of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University?

Under the guidance of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, we will continuously promote the culture of smart learning and distance learning, as well as transform higher education as one of the main drivers of a nation’s growth.

I have already shed some light on our ambitious plans, and we look forward to the launch of the ‘Zayed Cyber Palm for Education’ initiative at Expo 2020 Dubai in February 2022. This initiative will help spread the concept of smart learning at the regional and global levels. We will continue to utilize our resources and capabilities to support knowledge-transfer with the aim of making a real difference in people’s lives. All these efforts will enable HBMSU to continuously serve as a hub for smart education and the house of quality in the Arab region and globally.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

COV ER STORY

20

HAMDAN B IN M O H A MMED SMART UNIVERSITY Higher Education Digest October 2021

21

RE-ENGINEERING THE F UTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Digest October 2021

H

22

amdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) is the first accredited online university in the Arab world. It was the ambitious drive of the leadership of the Emirate of Dubai to set a new path for its young generation to become knowledge ambassadors, innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders of the future that led to the establishment of HBMSU in 2002, true to the vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Rather than starting as a conventional university that provides a few online courses, HBMSU was born as an online university. Since its inception, HBMSU has adopted a clear vision to lead the smart learning innovation for re-engineering the future of education to benefit individuals, organizations, and society. With the full support and supervision of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, President of the university, the University is committed to spreading a culture of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, and research through smart learning in the Arab world.

HBMSU’s pioneering vision stimulated the MoE to initiate standards for accreditation of e- learning institutions in the UAE as an essential pillar for reengineering the higher education system. HBMSU created a vision and mission to support online learning that ensured the pedagogies, and instructional technologies resulted in a smart learning eco-system. This system comprised of many integrated and interlinked components, including online curriculum design and delivery, life-long learning, faculty development, research and innovation, knowledge transfer, state of the art technological infrastructure, and global networks.

HBMSU learners are at the center of all components, resulting in a learner-centric environment. Learners are provided with full support from the day they start their learning journey at HBMSU until they graduate.

This includes but is not limited to pre-enrolment and admission support, learning resources, career planning and placement services, access to the latest educational technologies, and continuous academic and ICT support.

Mark of quality and excellence HBMSU is known for keeping quality and excellence at the forefront of its efforts which has earned it the title the ‘House of Quality and Excellence’. It focuses on total quality management (TQM) as one of the most important learning tracks that can help learners espouse

Higher Education Digest October 2021

a mindset and skills that do not settle for anything less than the highest quality and standards. HBMSU initiated the first academic program in quality management in UAE, that is the Bachelor of Business and Quality Management in 2006, followed by the Master of Science in Organizational Excellence in 2007. Both programs showed HBMSU’s commitment to spreading the culture of quality as the backbone for economic development in the region.

With a wider agenda of transforming society, HBMSU has been engaged in large pioneering educational projects including the Middle East e-Learning Quality Framework (MeLQ). The Middle East e-Learning Quality Framework was jointly developed by HBMSU and SCIL, a wellrecognized Swiss think tank that provides consulting services to a wide range of educational institutions in Europe and worldwide. MeLQ offers a framework for quality in e-Learning which builds on a solid theoretical basis informed by research on technology-enhanced learning. At the same time, MeLQ is designed to meet the expectations and demands of practitioners, placing a strong emphasis on issues like sustainability and economic feasibility of e-Learning arrangements.

In 2019, HBMSU launched an international consortium for ‘Benchmarking Framework for Online, Open, Smart, and Technology-Enhanced Higher Education,’ an alliance of prominent universities, associations, and quality assurance experts. The initiative helps online and open universities in their continuous move to improve their education systems by developing and implementing an evaluation framework that fully reflects the quality of the work of flexible, open, and online institutions and facilitates sharing of best world practices.

HBMSU has gained global recognition from leading organizations such as Pearson Global for fostering this culture using technologies and smart learning tools. Furthermore, it has become the first university in the Middle East and North Africa to obtain ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System certification.

Moreover, HBMSU is an active member of many reputed international organizations and institutions: the International Council for Open and Distance Education, European Learning Industry Group, British Quality Foundation, European Foundation for Quality Management, International Federation of Information Processing, etc.

HBMSU’s Lifelong Learning Model Lifelong learning continuously builds individuals’ knowledge and skills throughout their lifetime. It is not limited to specific degrees or courses but can take any form of training, tutoring, mentoring or life experience. Hamdan

Higher Education Digest October 2021

23

24

With its unique learning environment (Smart Campus), HBMSU offers a fresher learning experience with the use of technologies in the form of mobile learning, discussion blogs, online classrooms, educational gaming and social networking all suited to meet the needs of working professionals and high-school graduates alike.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Bin Mohammed Smart University’s lifelong learning model provides opportunities to the community from the age of 6 to 99 to gain knowledge and skills and to contribute to the growth of the economy. The model encompasses different formal education opportunities such as academic degrees and informal ones such as short courses. HBMSU portfolio of academic programs spread from undergraduate diplomas to doctoral degrees. The non-academic courses include skillbased certificates and short courses as well as professional development programs. These programs provide certification routes to participants in several fields such as excellence and business management, public health, environmental management, and smart learning. The lifelong learning model of the University allows learners to progressively move from one segment of learning to the higher one. Recognition of

Prior Learning (RPL) is at the center of this model and HBMSU has specific policies and procedures that govern the progression pathway.

The adoption of a lifelong learning vision as an integral part of HBMSU set a great example for other higher education institutions in the MENA region.

Lifelong learning should be at the core of the planning and implementation processes to ensure prompt response to changing market needs and strengthen the impact of higher education institutions.

Learning for future skills The institution believes that innovative pedagogy and approaches combined with modern technology are crucial to achieving its goals and are key to stimulating the interest of the youth of today to unleash their creativity.

HBMSU’s programmes and courses are designed to be highly interactive, engaging, and should offer the convenience that would advance the learners’ capabilities to acquire the essential skills of XXI century. One of its key features is learning on ‘cloud’ which provides learners with multiple flexible opportunities to learn new skills at any time at any place.

HBMSU’s Cloud Campus online platform offers an innovative means to acquiring skills for all, including professional development programmes and free online short courses that provide certification. The learning techniques and approaches are highly interactive which are supported by multimedia formats including videos as part of what it calls a microlearning method to optimize knowledge retention. The Cloud Campus disseminates knowledge through various techniques including videos; some of which are as short as 60-90 seconds, using the micro-learning method for maximum knowledge retention. Furthermore, learners can rely on roundthe-clock support from a team of experts and enjoy the benefits of being part of an online learning community of academics, fellow learners, private companies, and government organizations.

Cloud Campus has an interactive learning style. Its training programs address knowledge and skills with an interactive approach using self-paced learning. They also use a combination of self-learning and synchronous learning, which includes online training workshops. With such approaches, knowledge recipients would reach their maximum potentials.

25

Higher Education Digest October 2021

26

Another approach that has made HBMSU notable across the education world is its leading application of gamification in the learning process. Gamification is a proactive initiative for turning learning into an enjoyable journey by making it more ‘interesting,’ challenging’ and ‘exclusive’. HBMSU’s initiative to apply game theory to the learning process, aims to advance learning, improve the academic performance of learners, enhance the research environment, promote good behaviors, and encourage social cooperation. It simulates gaming concepts to motivate learners to earn points through various activities such as visiting the library and volunteer work, among others that will qualify them for points, badges, rewards, incentives, and enter the Leader Board. The EduGame education concept uses gaming elements to create a highly engaging learning

Higher Education Digest October 2021

HBMSU is a dynamic educational enterprise that provides lifelong learning opportunities to equip learners with the 21st century skills, and continuously creating the knowledge based on the culture of quality, innovation and research.

environment and motivate learners to participate in community activities, interactive discussions, and even in volunteering opportunities.

A helping hand to the world The Covid-19 pandemic imposed unprecedented challenges on education systems worldwide.

According to UNICEF report about education during Covid-19 pandemic, more than a billion children have been left behind because of school closures during the pandemic. There is a need to make a radical change in the educational system to make it more resilient when faced with future uncertainties. Furthermore, radical changes in the global education system cannot be done without concerted efforts to strengthen teachers in their leading role as they are the backbone that ensure the continuity of education when challenges emerge such as the global spread of Covid-19. Teachers need to become fully prepared and ready to provide distance learning using advanced technology while being able to manage and operate online classrooms in an effective and efficient manner.

Once the outbreak of Covid-19 started spreading from one country to the next in early 2020, HBMSU came to the forefront with purpose-built onlinelearning crash courses to assist teachers in moving to online learning in the context of emergency closures of schools and universities. HBMSU developed several courses to equip teachers with essential knowledge and skills in online pedagogy and technology. The courses “Be an online tutor in 24 hours” and “Design an online course in 24 Hours” were available in March 2020 and hundreds of thousands of educators joined them.

The Arabic version of the courses was developed in partnership with the Ministry of Education in UAE while the Russian version was developed in partnership with UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE).

HBMSU was the first and only Arab university invited to join The Global Education Coalition is a UNESCO initiative to respond to COVID-19 challenges and reduce inequalities in educational levels worldwide. It involves more than 150 members and provides an interactive and dedicated platform to support the educational needs of countries. It aims at joining forces of multiple stakeholders from private sectors, universities, non-profit organizations, and others to capitalize on the power of technology in helping stressed educational systems during Covid-19.

According to HBMSU Chancellor, His Excellency Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, “Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University is committed to supporting UNESCO’s endeavors to improve teachers’ efficiency and ability to adapt to the latest educational methods and best practices using information and communications technology to improve the quality of education all over the world. Therefore, we accentuate our commitment to continuously share our leading experiences in transforming the role of educators from teachers and instructors to facilitators of learning and knowledge ambassadors. This is in the core of our strategic objective for engaging learners as partners in the educational process and not as usual recipients; we aim to create a new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, decision-makers and future builders.”

Higher Education Digest October 2021

27

MENTOR’S MANTRA

BEST PRACTICES

THAT ENHANCE QUALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCE IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS Dr. Kiran S Nair, Program Director-MBA and Associate Professor, Abu Dhabi School of Management, Abu Dhabi, UAE

28 Dr. Kiran Nair is an Associate Professor of Management and the MBA Director at Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He has been associated with Higher Education Industry since 2016. Dr. Kiran holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration, specializing in the field of Marketing. His teaching specialization is in the field of Marketing, Innovation, Strategic Management, and Management.

Dr. Nair has 17 years of industry experience, working with various multinational organizations in the Middle East and India. His primary responsibilities have spanned Sales & Distribution Management, Marketing, and General Management. He has held different key positions such as Regional Business Development Manager, Product Head, Category Head, and Country Manager. As a lover of education and excellence and passionate about the youth, he came up with “Books2Boardrooms with Dr. Kiran”. Books2Boardrooms with Dr. Kiran is a YouTube channel where one learns from the BEST in the industry (from various niches and walks of life).

Higher Education Digest October 2021

If we are looking at the best practices we can adopt to ensure that we have a quality learning experience in our colleges, then we need to have a critical look at the students themselves because they are the subject in this case

I

t is widely believed that our youths are the leaders of tomorrow. When Higher education institutions live up to their expectations by doing what is adequately required of them, then the end product is that they will produce competent, smart, skilled and employable graduates.

A lot of efforts are concentrated on the number of students who get enrolled in college rather than on improving the quality of what they receive and learn once they arrive there. The Rising graduation rates and levels of educational achievement will realize little if the potentials of students are not adequately maximized.

It is very worrisome that quite many graduates are unemployed, and this is not because there are no jobs, but it is because some are not employable!

Some Employers complain that many graduates they hire are deficient in basic skills such as writing, problem-solving, critical thinking and character required for certain job roles. While this can majorly be blamed on the students themselves who fall into this category, some amount of blame also falls on the Educational institution which produces such graduates.

The mode of learning, teaching and lecturing that students in the higher institution are subjected to

plays a great role in their lives and affects how they will eventually turn out.

As much as possible we would want to reduce flaws and loopholes that are present in our educational system to ensure that our students have the best learning experience and turn out to be the wonderful graduates we expect them to be.

To critically examine this subject of how we can enhance the quality learning experience in the higher institution, we would look at three main perspectives which include: 1.The Students 2.The Educators/lecturers.

3.The Institution The Students If we are looking at the best practices we can adopt to ensure that we have a quality learning experience in our colleges, then we need to have a critical look at the students themselves because they are the subject in this case. Now we have to look at what roles they have to play to ensure that they get the best out of their learning experience.

The first aspect is their WILLINGNESS to Learn. This is because it is believed that a horse can be forced to the stream but can’t be forced to drink.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

29

30

If the students aren’t willing to learn a particular course or go through a certain program, then we won’t be able to get the best out of them! We can’t enhance their learning experience. No matter what great measures the school puts in place. It then comes down to these questions; How well do they love the course that they are learning? Were they compelled or forced into studying such a course? How well is it a course that appeals to them personally? We need to find answers to these questions.

If our students can study exactly what they want to study, what they are passionate about, then every other measure will fit in properly and then there would be this seamless experience in their learning experience. There would be a longing in the hearts of the students to learn and anticipate doing new things each day. Because the willingness is there.

Another point that would facilitate and enhance a better learning experience on the part of the students is for them to keep up to date with concurrent teaching. If they read

Higher Education Digest October 2021

up, prepare, research and study ahead of the class, then the learning experience would be very smooth because they would be able to relate easily with what the lecturer is trying to pass across. On the other hand, if they are lazy and nonchalant about their studies then definitely we can’t expect the learning experience to be seamless. Students are expected to have a good study culture and schedule which they should follow religiously. The more time they invest in their study, the more value they will get and the more capacity they will build.

The Educators/Lecturers There would be no need for us to have students in higher institutions if there are no educators, lecturers or instructors to guide them. The importance of having seasoned and professional educators in our colleges cannot be overemphasized, because they are the ones who will dispense the required knowledge to the students. So if we are looking at the best practices that need to be carried out

to enhance the quality learning experience, then we have to also look from the perspective of our lecturers and see what they also need to do from their angle to enhance the learning experience.

The first aspect we have to look at is the RELATIONSHIP between the Lecturers and the students. How well does he/ she relate with the students? How jovial and cordial is the relationship between both parties? Can the students see their lecturer as someone they can trust or be free to discuss issues that pertain to their education or seek advice from?

Do they accord the lecturer his/her due respect?

All these are questions that need to be answered. It is believed that educators are like parents to their students.

The moment we begin to have friction and relationship problems between the students and the educators, then we can be sure that the quality of the learning experience will be affected negatively. So to avoid this, the lecturer needs to ensure that they carry every student along, as often as possible, try to have some discussion with students whom they feel might be having issues coping with studies, and find solutions to help them out. In a nutshell, if a decent relationship between both parties is sustained, you can be sure that the learning experience would be seamless.

The next area would be HOW the Lecturer handles the class.

Is the lecturer’s class a “Military Regime” or is it fun to be in? Is it something that students look forward to? If a lecturer’s class is one to which every student looks forward, then they will be under a better learning umbrella. They’ll always want to be in his class because it’s fun and that way they’ll be listening, active and paying rapt attention to him/ her. When a lecturer makes the class an interactive one in which every student is allowed to participate and express themselves, then subconsciously, the students will have a sense of belonging in the class and would want to go the extra mile to learn and participate more. So making the class an interactive one is of vital importance and a key point to enhancing the learning experience.

Furthermore, another area to consider is the TEACHING PATTERNS of the Lecturer. If the learning experience is to be enhanced, then the teaching patterns which a lecturer decides to adopt will be a key factor to look into. The lecturer needs to study their audience and find out the best teaching methods that will favour the students.

For example, the lecturer could decide to explain a topic with demonstrations and writings while everyone listens, and then he gives his materials to them to flow with. Some other times, it could be that projecting a video or a presentation slide would be preferable as against just writing on the board and explaining with words of the mouth depending on what is being taught at that time.

It has been observed that when students work together in groups, they help sharpen themselves. The lecturer can also decide to create groups of students, say around four or five, and then assign tasks and group assignments to them. This would be done in such a way that students who are timid or not bold enough to meet the lecturer or even ask questions in class, can be free to express themselves and learn from their mates in the group. This should be an intentional extension of a teaching pattern of the Lecturer and will help to enhance the learning experience.

Another important point would be for the Lecturers to be able to connect the theories, lessons and concepts that they teach the students to the real-life application of those things. If the lecturers can successfully make students see how what they learn in class can be adequately applied in the professional world, it would make more sense to them and they will see the importance and relevance of the course they are studying. This will also enhance the relationship between the students and their instructors and the overall learning experience too.

Another key point is giving the students PERIODIC TESTS AND ASSESSMENTS, as against just one major test which comes before the main general examination. If periodic or weekly practical tests are given to students, it would help them get prepared adequately for their exams.

Sometimes, the reason most students don’t pass exams is that they don’t prepare adequately for them. However, writing tests every week or every two weeks will help them sustain the consciousness of what they’ve been learning so far and thus become better at it. The lecturer would be able to realise and know those who are still having challenges and those who have a better understanding of what they have been taught. This would lead the lecturer to sort out any issues and have time to get those who are having problems ready and prepared before the main examination.

Also, it would keep the students on their toes and they would want to take their studies seriously because they would be looking forward to the practical assessments.

So having constant but not burdensome tests will help enhance the learning experience because it will keep the students on their toes and get them prepared for the future.

The Institution Having looked at some practices from the perspective of the Students and Educators that can be employed to enhance the quality learning experience in the higher institution, we want to also look at what roles and practices the Educational Institution itself can play to foster better learning experience.

We are in the digital age, the landscape of college life and the learning experience is changing dramatically. This

Higher Education Digest October 2021

31

32

offers colleges and universities a wide array of tools and avenues for broadened communication.

To ensure that more students leave an institution with the credentials they came for, the Institution must focus on improving the overall student learning experience by doing the following; The Institution has to be ACTIVE on Social media.

Social media gives Colleges the ability to reach out to their students easily. It also enables students to ‘meet’ each other online, sparking friendships and working relationships from the very beginning of their time at college.

As the average youth spends a lot of time on social media, it is only logical for colleges to use different platforms to connect with their students.

Visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are great for using visuals to communicate information, while Facebook and Twitter are ideal for promoting interaction and providing solutions to concerns or issues.

With some careful planning and strategy, colleges and universities can build their brand on social media. Using features such as video stories, they can share student experiences and promote upcoming events to build engagement and enhance the learning experience.

The next practice to adopt by the Institution would be to Seek out FEEDBACK from Students and implement it. Students are in a better position to give feedback about their learning programmes and experiences because they know the pros and cons of a learning program better.

Student feedback is of utmost importance and cannot be overemphasized.

Using tools such as Google Forms and other Survey mediums, it is easy to ask students what they think while polls on social media and blogs are simple ways to get intel into what students want to know more about or have concerns about. This gives the institutions valuable insights and external verification on what is working and what needs to be changed to improve the student experience. In essence, students can become co-creators of their learning environment. The key is to implement suggestions that may work and let students know you are trialling them.

Another very vital point would be for the Higher Institution to work in partnership and close synergy with various professionals and industries where these students can be employed as soon as they graduate. The Higher institution should have a very strong Industry panel and have frequent meetings with them to know what exactly these industries require from the students. Working closely with these industries would bridge the gap between the Students and the industry. When this relationship is built, Experts from these industries can be invited regularly to have interactive sessions with the students. This will would enable the students would be able to understand what is expected of them, and what kind of work culture they are to embrace. When they graduate, life and expectations in the outside world won’t be strange to them, due to the first-hand experience and interactions they’ve had while in school.

Another very essential practice that is of great importance is the Strong Avoidance of RACISM in Higher institutions. Neglecting this practice has the potential to damage the reputation that an educational institution has built over the years. No student should be given preferential treatment or made to look as though they are better than some others because of where they come from. Harmony should be encouraged in higher institutions. Colour, tribe or race shouldn’t be a factor that should determine how students are treated. The moment some students begin to feel abused and insulted because of their origins, it will negatively affect their learning experience and cause them to begin to lose interest in school. That way, we won’t get the best out of them. Hence, Racism should be avoided at all costs.

In conclusion, when students choose an institution to enrol in and learn from, their learning expectations should match with the educator programmes, and these two needs to align with the industry’s expectations. When all three are aligned, that would be the best higher education one can have. Strict adherence to the above-mentioned practices will produce a better quality of learning experience and a better quality of graduating students.

Making the class an interactive one is of vital importance and a key point to enhancing the learning experience

Higher Education Digest October 2021

67 33

Higher Education Digest October October 2020 2021

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

WHY SHOULD

UNIVERSITIES IN MENA REGION FOCUS ON MARKET RESEARCH? Dr. Senthil Nathan, Managing Director – Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi and Co-Founder, Edorer Inc., San Francisco

34 Dr. Senthil Nathan co-founded and heads Edu Alliance Ltd, Abu Dhabi - a boutique management consultancy specializing in education. In the past 7 years, he has consulted for over 25 universities and investors and helped establish new universities. The client list includes NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE University, Heriot-Watt University – Dubai, Antioch University - USA, KIMEP University – Almaty, Dubai Investments, University of Wollongong – Dubai, AURAK, Abu Dhabi University, Ajman University, American University in Cairo, and the like. He is an experienced academic leader with over 30 years of experience in university academic and administrative leadership and engineering. He is also a co-founder of EdTech company Edorer Inc., San Francisco, USA.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

The MENA region has the largest youth population in the world, with more than half of residents under the age of 25

U

niversities and academics are often accused of living in ivory towers. An ivory tower, according to Oxford Languages, is “a state of privileged seclusion or separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world.” For those who straddle the world of academia and industry, this is often apparent – but not so for those who are entrenched within the four walls of the universities.

Secondly, the products of universities are young graduates on the cusp of starting their professional careers. But, interestingly, unlike typical businesses, universities do not generally need to take responsibility to market and place their graduates. Hence, in the business parlance, universities occupy a unique place – of being not under the constraint of having to sell what they produce – unlike any other business sector. More often than not, this leads to skill gaps and unemployment of graduates.

This disparity is more so in emerging economies and developing nations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The following statistics from a Brookings Report entitled “Youth Employment in the Middle East and North Africa: Revisiting and Reframing the Challenge” (2019) provide evidence to this looming gap between what the universities produce and what the industry/businesses need:

● The MENA region has the largest youth population in the world, with more than half of residents under the age of 25. ● The MENA region has the world’s highest youth unemployment rate, standing at 27.2% in the Middle East and 29% in North Africa, according to the World Bank. This is more than twice the global average. ● University graduates are making up nearly 30% of the total unemployed pool in the region. ● According to a study of CEOs in the region, 46% of the region’s employers do not consider graduates to possess the right skills set. And 65 to 80% of the employers reported that graduates were not work-ready.

This is indeed alarming – but this trend has been going on for several years now. While there are several structural and socio-political reasons for the above situation, there is one factor that is within the control of the universities to help address these disquieting trends and gaps.

There are some important lessons that the universities can emulate from the business sector that need to address this supply-demand gap faced by their products, namely by market research. Universities can and must pursue quality market research about: ● the programs they offer, ● the contents they include in the curriculum and

Higher Education Digest October 2021

35

● the intended graduate outcomes of their programs.

Why market research on the program front is a key to the long-term success of universities and their graduates? ● Many academics are not actively engaged with the relevant industry; many have never worked in their industry or may have worked a long time ago. ● While some academics keep themselves up to date on the research needs of the relevant industry, most of them are not aware of specific skills expected today of entry-level professionals by relevant industries. ● In the wake of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the future of work and associated jobs are going thru a fast major revolution and transformation. Even under the normal pace of change in the socio-economic environment, university faculty have had difficulties keeping up with changes. Today, this is much more of a challenge than it has ever been. Hence, the imperative for universities to be in continual engagement with the industry takes on a much more urgent and significant dimension.

There are different types of market research that universities must be engaged in: ● Institutional level: Market research must be done at the university level – about the set of programs they are currently offering – and are planning to launch over the next five years or so. Such a program rationalization exercise must be done as part of the university’s Strategic Planning exercise – typically undertaken in a five-year cycle.

36

● Program level: every new program that is initiated at a university must be accompanied by a proper feasibility study that includes objective market research, preferably done by an external group (given the possible internal bias and the internal lack of engagement with industry as outlined earlier). ● Program evaluation: Program level KPIs must include annual measurement of their graduate career placement rates within a few months upon graduation. Those programs that show poor placement records (as compared to the national averages or similar measures) must be placed on feasibility review and market research.

What is market research? Sound market research – either at the institutional level or program level – would include secondary research, considering objective data sets that are in the public domain; and primary market research with a focus on specific employers/regions that the graduates are targeted for. Triangulating various objective data, subjective pieces of evidence, and specific feedback from individual employers, and analyzing for business intelligence require informed and well-experienced experts within the academic

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Well-designed market research could become effective and useful channels of communication

domain. Market research in academia – done by marketing specialists from other businesses such as F&B, manufacturing, technology, and the like – are likely to result in uninformed analyses and inappropriate recommendations that may be difficult to implement in a university setting.

Benefits of market research: Well-designed market research could become effective and useful channels of communication: if the faculty members are kept engaged through the process, they will learn a great deal from the interactions with the industry. And potential employers engaged in this process will also learn from these interactions – what universities can do and what employers must do as part of on-the-job training once fresh graduates are employed. These benefits are priceless and often more important and lasting than the final reports and data sets presented in the market research reports.

Well-designed market research could inform curriculum design including desired graduate outcomes, need for features such as internships, capstone projects, portfolio assessments, and the like. It is fairly a common occurrence for faculty to discover what they considered as absolutely critical may take a backseat in the view of employers and some skills that the faculty may not even consider as part of the curriculum may be considered essential by employers.

Industry and community stakeholder feedback often provide much-needed clarity to curriculum debates within departments.

If any university in the region consistently practices this, their faculty members and academic leadership would gain in many ways: in addition to the primary objective of ensuring that they offer the right programs with the right content and producing

the right employable skills in the graduates, the faculty will also become aware of: ● the number of graduates that the market can take (thus informing program enrollment targets), ● internship opportunities for their students, ● applied research and consulting opportunities for faculty, ● higher-level organizational collaborations and ● potential benefits of these networks for the university leadership.

Well-satisfied industry and student-parent community are the best forms of promotion and advertisement for a university. These stakeholders speak much louder than university or program rankings, research conferences, fellow academics, and so on. The very fact that the university cares enough to consult the stakeholders in their program offerings and consider the feedback seriously would build tremendous goodwill – much more than what expensive promotional campaigns could.

At this juncture, universities of the MENA region are still in the early stages of deploying the full potential of market research. As a regional best practice: national and emirate-wide accreditation and licensing agencies in the UAE require market research and feasibility studies and the expectations of these reviewers are becoming more stringent. This may be emulated in other countries of the region as well – particularly in those countries with increasing graduate unemployment rates. Whether or not accreditation agencies require such market research, it is a healthy practice for universities and faculty to be engaged in objective market research for many benefits that this would bring both in the short term and the long term.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

37

ACADEMIC VIEWS

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR

STUDENTS AFTER K-12 GRADUATION – NOT ALL IS LOST IF YOU DO NOT PURSUE A DEGREE PROGRAM Dr. Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, Global Dean (UG) & Professor – Supply Chain Operations, Data Sciences & Analytics, SP Jain School of Global Management

38 Dr Vaidyanathan Jayaraman is the Dean of Undergraduate Programs and a Distinguished Professor at SP Jain School of Global Management.

He oversees the undergraduate programs across the School’s campuses in Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney. Prior to taking on this role, Dr Jayaraman was the Principal and Associate Dean at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India. Before joining Great Lakes, he was a tenured senior faculty at the School of Business Administration, University of Miami, USA, where he taught Supply Chain Operations and Analytics.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Over the past decade, especially during the pandemic era that we’re going through now, more and more high school students have gotten immersed in Volunteering

T

he typical path taken by high school students after graduation is to enroll in higher studies (University, Junior College, Professional Certifications) because students and their parents believe that this is the best way to progress in their careers.

However, there is a change in this mentality over the past few years. In the westernized world, some students who felt burnt out take a gap year to figure out their future course of action. This gap year strategy is now becoming popular in the Eastern world as well. There are some students, due to multiple reasons including financial distress, who choose to carve out a career immediately following their K12 graduation.

Some of the popular jobs include working as a technician, sales representative, physical therapy aide, medical secretary, or truck driver.

The common theme among all these jobs is that

you need minimal skill sets, can usually get trained on the job, and possess a sheer passion to work in a chosen area. However, for jobs such as a sales rep, you need to articulate and possess good communication skills. For a physical therapy assistant, you should not only be interested in fitness but also have a general cognizance of the human anatomy. Truck drivers on the other hand should be patient to drive long, arduous hours in a day and also be skillful on the road and have some basic knowledge to take good care of their trucks.

In some countries such as the United States and the Philippines, there has been a move to produce job-ready or Business ready high school graduates under the K-12 program. The primary goal of the curriculum that has been put into place is to get students skilled and market-ready. It’s all about shaping and polishing the youth for employment through skills development in lieu of preparing

Higher Education Digest October 2021

39

40

Thanks to the Internet, students can now find several free online courses that can provide them with advice on opening and operating their own business

them for university education. Such skills development could be focused on sports, vocational training, nurturing students to pursue arts and design, or carving a livelihood for students in activities such as carpentry, plumbing, or a mechanic.

Over the past decade, especially during the pandemic era that we’re going through now, more and more high school students have gotten immersed in Volunteering. Being passionate yet compassionate has taken on a new meaning. Volunteering either locally or nationally has helped students learn new skills, develop connections and focus a lot of energy on a cause that is of immense interest.

Another trend that is becoming quite popular is to start a Business – the very idea of job creation has kindled

Higher Education Digest October 2021

the entrepreneurial gene and spirit in high school students. Several students have figured out a way to turn their hobby or talent into a source of income through blogging, YouTubing, and real estate (buy, sell and flip houses). Students are also freelancing in areas such as writing, painting, jewellery design, or personal art.

Thanks to the Internet, students can now find several free online courses that can provide them with advice on opening and operating their own business. To conclude, not all is lost if a student does not have a desire to pursue a higher education degree after graduating from K-12. All that is required is a certain amount of passion and dedication to the task. It’s all about having the right aptitude combined with a positive attitude that will certainly take them to the highest altitude.

www.exeedcollege.com

LEARN TO TEACH AND LEAD Earn the credentials you need to get the job you want in child care, community service, teaching and educational leadership.

41

MA.Ed

CACHE LEVEL 2

(Master of Arts in Leadership in Education)

(To work as a Teacher Assistant)

PGCEi

CACHE LEVEL 3

(Post Graduate Certificate in Education international)

(To work as a Teacher)

PGDE

CACHE LEVEL 5

Professional Global Diploma in Education

For more information please contact

(To work as a Manager)

+971 65 310 8437, +971 56 443 2610 Higher Education Digest October 2021

MUST-WATCH EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR - 2021

Ouriginal 42

Making Plagiarism Prevention Easy F

rom a young age, teachers and elders have taught us that honesty and integrity are essential qualities we need in our academic and professional life. However, as we grow older, many of us tend to compromise on these qualities, and plagiarism becomes a part of our work. “According to The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), academic integrity is a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage.

For us, academic integrity means providing everyone with an opportunity to develop their full potential. That full potential can only be unlocked if students learn how to write and think in an original way,” says Andreas Ohlson, CEO of Ouriginal.

Ouriginal is an award-winning software solution that combines text-matching with writing style analysis, enabling educators and users to assess the authenticity of any text. It helps create an environment that fosters fairness and sparks creativity among students, facilitating personal development by unlocking their full potential. Ohlson shares, “A few years ago, academic integrity could be safeguarded through any advanced

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Original was established in 2020 when two of the industry’s leading giants, Urkund and PlagScan, joined forces to improve academic integrity and promote original thinking

43

Andreas Ohlson

Andreas Ohlson is the CEO of Ouriginal, a company that was created in 2020 when two of the industry’s leading giants, Urkund and PlagScan joined forces. He has been the CEO of Urkund and other related companies since 2007. A result-oriented thinker, Ohlson believes in providing students, academic institutions and businesses alike, the solution to prevent not only plagiarism but also to validate the originality of content

Higher Education Digest October 2021

44

Our solution integrates perfectly and seamlessly within existing workflows and processes - it is almost like ‘plug and play

Higher Education Digest October 2021

plagiarism detection solutions, checking documents for similarities. But there are two more trends now posing a threat to academic integrity worldwide, and those need to be addressed and covered by a modern and innovative originality suite like ours.”

According to Ohlson, the first one is ‘cross-language plagiarism’ or plagiarism through translations. He adds, “There is a growing number of students now being enrolled in programs that are taught in English or another language that is not their mother tongue. Students simply translate sources from a language different than the language that the assignment needs to be submitted in - without citing the source.” The second trend threatening academic integrity comes with the gaining popularity of the gig economy, a labour market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. However, Ohlson does not believe that the gig economy in itself is not endangering academic integrity, but parts of it are. He explains, “Over the last few years, we have seen immense growth in the availability of academic ghostwriters

offering their services at incredibly low prices. Nowadays, you don’t need to pay a huge amount of money to get someone somewhere to complete your school homework, university assignment, or even a doctoral thesis.”

At Ouriginal, Ohlson and his team are addressing these two growing challenges through their innovative solutions. Using Ouriginal’s new features, educators will be able to check for plagiarism even across languages. They will also be able to evaluate if students really are the authors of the documents they have submitted. “By adding these kinds of features to our originality solution, we are ensuring that educators will be able to safeguard academic integrity today.

We are already researching new areas to support educators in tailoring educational tactics to the need of every student as an individual,” states Ohlson.

Promoting Original Thinking Original was established in 2020 when two of the industry’s leading giants, Urkund and PlagScan, joined forces to improve academic integrity and promote original thinking. Urkund and PlagScan had not

Higher Education Digest October 2021

45

only developed equally good, cuttingedge plagiarism detection software but were also driven by the same goals and core values. Both companies were established by people who came from an educational background and discovered a need to protect something that could be increasingly endangered by modern technologies: the freedom of every student to develop their full potential by original thinking and creative writing.

“This is the reason why we developed a solution to help teachers save time when correcting student exams and to safeguard academic integrity and the quality of education,” reminds Ohlson.

For the new and existing customers of Urkund and PlagScan, Ouriginal offers a wide range of benefits, as it is bigger and better in many aspects. Ohlson claims, “By choosing the best solution and processes from both companies across all departments, we will be to deliver ‘best of breed’ performance in many facets. Also, by combining our two technologies, we will be able to optimize our existing products into one solution that exceeds the performance and functionality of both single products.”

In a nutshell, Urkund and PlagScan together could address the needs of the rapidly evolving market as well as those of their existing customers.

With more than three decades of combined knowledge and expertise, Ouriginal now delivers cutting-edge technology that helps enhance the potential of students to think originally, saves time for teachers when evaluating assignments, and assists corporates preserve their reputation. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company has additional offices in Cologne, Germany, and St. Louis, USA. Ouriginal is truly

46

Higher Education Digest October 2021

global, with customers spread across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

Making a Difference Ouriginal’s focus is on user experience that aims to support educators in their quest to provide the best education possible for their students without having to become IT experts. Therefore, the company has intentionally kept its solution lean and does not include an extreme number of tools and features into the software. Ohlson says, “We want the setup, maintenance, and especially the usage of our product to be as simple and easy as possible. Our solution integrates perfectly and seamlessly within existing workflows and processes - it is almost like ‘plug and play’.”

Ouriginal works very closely with a huge number of Learning Management System (LMS)

providers to ensure a user-friendly experience for its customers.

“By simply becoming an additional part of an already existing workflow, we ensure that training and support cases are kept at a minimum - and educators are able to focus on their real work: teaching and developing the full potential of their students,” explains Ohlson. Recently, Ouriginal has added two new features – Cross Language Text Matching (CLTM) and Ouriginal Metrics. CLTM helps identify matching content translated from one language to another using Ouriginal’s latest state-of-the-art algorithms. On the other hand, Metrics analyzes the submitted content based on certain writing style parameters and identifies patterns that can be used to verify the authorship of the document and prevent ghostwriting.

Ouriginal’s customer-centric focus has always helped them to stand out of the crowd and stay

47

Higher Education Digest October 2021

48

ahead of the competition. “As a company, we are able to react very quickly and efficiently to our customers’ wishes, needs, and requirements. This is our legacy, and this is what Ouriginal continues to do: treating customers with respect and really caring about them,” pinpoints Ohlson. Proof of this can be found in every aspect of Ouriginal’s customer journey and user experience. The company offers a sustainable and transparent business model that works well for customers financially and is easy to understand and forecast. Ohlson adds, “The development of our features is not driven by what our engineers could develop to make us look super-techy, but what

Higher Education Digest October 2021

our customers really need. We listen, we learn, we implement. It’s as simple as that.”

Achieving Targets - The Ouriginal Way Generally, Ouriginal has been developing its solution based on the needs of its customers. It was developed by educators for educators, and this has been the underlying pattern when it comes to its performance as well. “As we develop our product further by listening to the needs of our customers – academia, K12 as well as corporate business – we see a constant growth of our business. People buy what they need and like. This is true for Ouriginal as well,” states Ohlson. Since the launch of Ouriginal through the

merger of two market leaders in different areas - Urkund and PlagScan – their customers and partners have been growing steadily. It proves that Ouriginal’s business is not only progressing very well but developing rapidly too.

“Looking specifically at our performance from March 2020 onwards, which was the time when the pandemic hit the world, the usage of our product increased tremendously,” shares Ohlson.

The rapid growth of Ouriginal demonstrates a couple of aspects. First, even in countries that were not fully digitized, educators suddenly understood the need for plagiarism detection software that is easy to introduce, maintain and

With a flat hierarchy and an agile approach to management, everyone at Ouriginal is encouraged to speak up with new ideas or reach out to others when they see room for improvement, or when there is an opportunity to adopt the best practices or simply to share and celebrate the success of one another. With employees coming from different backgrounds teachers, businessmen, and even former hoteliers and beer brewers being part of the organization - diversity has always been one of the leading principles of Ouriginal’s work culture right from the beginning. “For us, creativity and flexibility, along with being able to work in a multi-cultural and multi-racial team, are some

49

use in an emergency and ad hoc scenario. Second, it further cemented Ouriginal’s global reputation as one of Europe’s well-acknowledged and respected EdTech companies.

It is not just the customer-centric approach that helps Ouriginal in achieving its growth target quicker than its peers. Ohlson says, “As we are a very diverse company with three main offices around the world where people from over 13 countries work, we make sure to communicate our common goals as well as our mission not only externally, but also internally.” Ouriginal wants to unlock everyone’s full potential, be it students at educational institutions or its own employees. “This is what unites us and what drives us at the same time. We not only want to talk about originality, but we also want to live it,” adds Ohlson.

of the most important qualities we look for in future Ouriginal employees. People bringing a different perspective into discussions helps us stay flexible, innovative, and creative as a company,” comments Ohlson.

The Way Forward With over three decades in the EdTech sector, the people behind Ouriginal are one of the pioneers within the industry. With such a legacy,

Higher Education Digest October 2021

50

it is also tempting to assume that you know best how to position and sell your product.

However, yesterday’s strategy may not work today or tomorrow. Ohlson opines, “Generally in business and life, you have to adapt to the changing needs and trends.

At the same time, you should never lose your focus on what really counts: satisfying your customers’ needs and anticipating their future demands.” Unlike many EdTech firms in the market, Ouriginal focuses on having an ongoing and constant conversation with its customers and potential customers. Living in a culture of continuous improvement, the key learning from these conversations then gets implemented into Ouriginal’s products.

“Our advice for startups is, listen to your customer, learn what they really need, and implement it. Do not focus on the fanciest features you could implement into your product, rather, focus on the real demand.

This can only happen when you listen,” says Ohlson.

Ouriginal’s aim is to continue to improve its core product, use technology to find new areas of application - either on its own or together with its partners from within the EdTech sector. The company strives to build joint products that provide its users

Higher Education Digest October 2021

with enhanced workflow, improved user experience, and most importantly, create a better environment for students to learn and be original. “In the light of the current pandemic, we see that education per se, as well as the demand for digital solutions, has changed - and increased tremendously. In our opinion, we will see a huge increase in online classes and degrees from universities all across the globe, even after the pandemic is over,” pinpoints Ohlson.

The world of education has come to a stage where students will no need to go abroad to study for a degree. They can, for example, continue to live in Stockholm and get a degree from a university in Australia.

Ohlson adds, “We are convinced that within a timeframe of 5-10 years, the educational landscape globally will have changed profoundly. This will also have a big impact on us as a technology and solution provider.

Here, the relationship with our customers will be crucial. Only if we listen to the demands of our customers in terms of new products and

51

solutions we will be able to serve the market and education as before. And this is exactly what we are planning to do.”

With a market size of about USD 700800 million, the world has many educationtechnology partners, offering solutions that look similar but turn out to be quite different in the end. “Trust your gut feeling when talking to them because EdTech products

usually require constant communication with your provider or technology partner. If the conversation does not go well in the beginning, how should it be successful in the future? Trust technology partners that talk about what they can do for you to solve your problem, rather than talking about their product and how you might need to adapt to their solutions!” concludes Ohlson.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

HIGHER EDUCATION

IN THE MIDDLE EAST Dr. Vidhya Vinod, Group President & CEO, Study World Education Holding Group

52 Dr. Vidhya Vinod an entrepreneur, educationist and visionary enriches Study World with her expertise in creating, operating and delivering exceptional experiences in professional education. Dr. Vidhya is on the board of few schools and institutions in UAE, India and Qatar. She has distinguished herself as a student, sportsperson and socially committed citizen in her early years and is also a much lauded teacher. Through “Hope for tomorrow” initiative raised money and supported a few under privileged children with education and medical facilities. One of the youngest women CEO in the region, Dr. Vidhya aspires to use her innovation and management skills to establish reputed and commercially viable educational institutions in different parts of the world.

Dr. Vidhya is a mother, homemaker and yoga enthusiast, who is highly committed and leads a balanced life style.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

While Covid-19 brought about some instability in the sector, I strongly believe that the higher education industry is bound to grow further in the future, despite the unsettling challenges of Covid-19 in the last one year

53

W

hen I first started in Dubai in 2005, the higher education industry was still at its infancy. There were a few established higher education institutions, but by and large students, especially expats who had completed their schooling were either choosing to go abroad to study in the West or back to their home countries in the Indian subcontinent or the Middle East. Soon after the Dubai Knowledge Village set up there was a new wave of business friendly, free zone establishments, and the flow of international branch campuses started.

Especially over the last two decades, the UAE has provided a great platform for international higher education institutions’ aspirations for transnational education. For companies like ours, it was not just

an opportunity to collaborate with reputable higher education institutions in Dubai, but also to use this learning to expand to other foreign markets.

Throughout the last decade, Study World has made various inroads in higher education in other countries too, including setting up operations in Malta, Sri Lanka, India and partner associations with various high schools and other education partners in the wider Middle East region. Such increases in both the number and quality of institutions in the region has also ensured that there is an increasing number of local students staying back in the home country and at the same time has promoted student mobility across countries in the Middle East.

A key spinoff of this growth in higher education is obviously the increase in economic benefits to the society and to the countries in general.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

54

While Covid-19 brought about some instability in the sector, I strongly believe that the higher education industry is bound to grow further in the future, despite the unsettling challenges of Covid-19 in the last one year. There is enough evidence to show that though the pandemic has brought about various economic and social disruptions in the minds of students, it has also made them mentally and emotionally strong. It has given educators, parents, students and other stakeholders a reallife scenario of optimizing results in the face of a crisis.

The world was caught off-guard to a great extent by this crisis, it has challenged our thinking to reflect and be ready for the unknown. As we have witnessed in several countries, technology has played a major role in helping ensure that overall education does not suffer. I think this will help boost the acceptance and adoption of technological models in education at all levels and in all forms throughout most countries in the Middle East region. This will also necessitate that teachers themselves are well-informed in using such solutions to achieve

Higher Education Digest October 2021

their class learning objectives. In fact, Covid has helped bring about a positive disruption that has forced schools and universities to think anew and reach out to a larger group of stakeholders in an inclusive and interlinked manner. With the long-term vision and strategic thinking of the UAE leaders, I reckon that most higher education institutions in the country and the sector in general will see growth going forward.

The possibility of an uncertain future will also help push demand for higher education as more and more individuals will seek to enhance their skills and knowledge to be better prepared for an evolving job market. It would not be unsurprising to see that programmes in Science and Technology see a major uptake in years to come.

One key trend that I think the sector will witness is the tremendous growth in the participation of women in the higher education sector in the Middle East.

This, I think, will be in the form of growth in various key stakeholders – teachers, students, and importantly women entrepreneurs.

55 7

Higher Education Digest Higher Education October Digest 2021 October 2020

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

THE STAKE OF DIGITALIZATION

AND PERSONALIZATION IN HOSPITALITY EDUCATION Benoit-Etienne Domenget, CEO, Sommet Education

56 Graduating from HEC business school in Paris, Benoît-Etienne Domenget started his career with Accor Group, managing different hotel properties before joining the corporate office as Senior Vice - President Development to head the group’s strategic development in Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) regions. In January 2017, Benoît-Etienne was appointed CEO of the newly-formed Sommet Education, encompassing the prestigious Swiss hospitality management schools of Glion Institute of Higher Education and Les Roches Global Hospitality Education with branch campuses in Switzerland, Spain, UK, US, China and Jordan.

The group was founded following the institutions’ acquisition by French investment company Eurazeo.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

The number of individuals studying a university program outside of their home country has been steadily rising for over the last 20 years

H

ospitality education is a fast-evolving world, and hospitality schools having to keep pace with both the industry and education trends and novelties, are required to work with the industry experts in defining the most efficient way to teach the relevant skills to students.

Indeed, digitalization is one of the most significant trends in hospitality education, and is also one of the most significant trends in the hospitality industry. This has been foreseen as a shift shaping the world, but now it has become a necessity with the Covid crisis being a catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality world. However, we must not forget that hospitality is all about customer’s experience and that digitalization must help to enhance this experience. For our students to fully understands the stakes of digitalization, they need to be aware of the world of possibilities that it offers, but also be fully conscious of the limits.

Digitalization requires to be handled carefully, to protect both the service provider and the customer, and for this, experts in the domains have to educate hospitality students in using digital tools in a way it increases a performance or magnify a service.

To be fully understood, theoretical courses on the digitalization topics are certainly essential, but it is also crucial to integrate digitalization in the knowledge delivery itself, in a way it become natural to evolve in a digitalized environment. A great example of this is the way Covid crisis challenged all education providers to continue delivering knowledge. In our very case, Sommet Education institutions were already undertaking the turning point of digitalization and our experts were aware of the best tools to implement for distant education and then ready to execute the necessary transformations to our learning system. We managed to do so as a company in a very limited time while maintaining the level of excellence in our student learning experience and outcomes. We maintained student personalized support, mentoring, cohort interactions and community sense of belonging, while at the same time creating innovative, contextualized, and enriched academic content. We put in place a unique online solution called “Connect” where students were able to continue their studies remotely through the use of digital textbooks accessible 24/7, videoconferences and online assessments. While the teaching methods are

Higher Education Digest October 2021

57

58

Higher Education Digest October 2021

different online to those on campus, we managed to create a whole system, using different tools, for them both to provide identical learning outcomes. This flexible solution, adapting to the different time zones where our students were, is also highly personalized in terms of the student’s learning journey. Our students are never left alone in their online learning process.

They are learning in small classes, have regular oneto-one meetings with their teachers, get to know both other online and on-campus students through solutions put in place by our teams on campus. Today, we have more than 70 programs that are adapted to online education. Now we offer also blended programs that are a mix of both

The personalization of one’s education pathway is largely driven by the possibility offered for specialization

physical and digital teaching. Digitalization stakes are also integrated in our programs through the discovery of the newest inventions in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, software, etc. With the return to face to face classes and recovery of the hospitality and tourism industry, digital tools implemented remain relevant to maintain, in order to enhance our students experience, bringing flexibility and enlarging the range of teaching possibilities. This flexibility and sense of personalization in education is essential in such a demanding industry and to impart knowledge in the most efficient way for students to process the learning outcomes.

Another skill that is essential for future hospitality professionals to have is the openness to the world and

the understanding of the plurality of different cultures of the global world they evolve in. This soft skill can be gained by being immersed in a multicultural climate, and by moving around the globe, being confronted to different environments, challenging one’s agility and adaptability.

The number of individuals studying a university program outside of their home country has been steadily rising for over the last 20 years. In 2000 it was around 2 million students, at the last count 5 years ago in 2017, UNESCO figures showed over 5 million students studying abroad.

Opting for an international education has a number of strong draws, not least for hospitality students.

Students can start their education in a certain country, can transfer or spend semesters abroad acquiring the global vision and experience that will enable them to embrace global hospitality careers. This is the richness of our beautiful industry and students should always be encouraged to move and discover. This is our responsibility to create these opportunities for our students by working on a worldwide level. We aim to open a world of possibilities to our students, in order for them to be able to study where they wish in the world and gain international experience and knowledge. For this reason, we are expanding our network of schools, both in terms of integrating renowned institutions to our portfolio, but also in developing our well-known brands, opening campuses in new locations, and developing synergies between our institutions, thus creating a stronger global network. We are convinced that together, we can go higher and reach exceptional ends. The personalization of one’s education pathway is also largely driven by the possibility offered for specialization. Indeed, for hospitality leaders, as well as other industry leaders, being an expert in a field by specializing is a great chance to succeed as a professional.

For this, students should be offered the possibility of following personalized pathways, creating their very own knowledge journey, exploring new concepts and being taken through the full scope of a certain branch.

Digitalization and travels hospitality education moving forward flexibility and personalization, education providers have to take the step further undertaking the necessary evolutions to provide students with the necessary tools and inspiring them to become the professionals of tomorrow.

Sharing passion with students and providing them with the correct tools to succeed in shaping the hospitality of tomorrow is our role as premium hospitality education providers. Tailor-made experience is a huge opportunity for schools and students and should be worked around to take students to the next level of expertise and passion for the hospitality industry.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

59

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

RE-IMAGINING THE FUTURE

OF HIGHER EDUCATION USING THE THREE HORIZON MODEL Dr. Khyati Shetty, Campus Director, Focus College, British Columbia, Canada

60 Dr. Khyati Shetty is the recipient of the GCC Education Leaders Award-2019, Top 100 Global Training and Development Minds-2018, GCC Women Leaders Award-2017 and the former Dean of Curtin University, Dr. Khyati Shetty comes with 15+ years of experience working in academia. Her passion for transforming individuals led her to flourish by working with high potential leaders, executives and entrepreneurs and has conducted over 300+ workshops in 10+ countries. She has also been working as a leadership consultant for Government bodies in Nigeria, Ghana, Dubai, Maldives, and Mauritius. Khyati is a Certified Co-Active coach from CTI, USA, A Professional Co-active coach from the Coach Training Institute, USA, and a certified Psychometric Test Professional accredited assessor and SFHEA (UK). She holds a degree in MBA (Marketing), PG Degree in Human Resource Management and a Doctorate in Brand Personality Congruence. Her research interests are in the areas of Strategic Marketing, Branding and Women’s Entrepreneurship and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles. She also regularly contributes to Forbes and CNBC. She is currently the Campus Director of Focus College, British Columbia, Canada.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Innovation which I believe could be great for academic leaders to reflect and build on for reshaping teaching strategies post covid

T

he pandemic upended every aspect of Higher Education at once. It was just not a move from brick-and-mortar classes to computer screens.

It challenged everything we ever knew about education- instruction, attendance, role of technology and the human connection that hold it all together. A year and a half later rethinking is underway with a growing sense that changes may last. In a typical crisis, organizations tend to focus on “now” and deal with the “after” after the crisis has subsided. However, the nature of the crisis that the pandemic unfolded was different which didn’t follow the usual steps of a crisis- Initial “boom”, followed by response, recovery and- then time to reflect on what occurred—organizational resilience. But what does it mean when the boom keeps going with no defined end— and the continuous threat of a second boom?

As an innovation strategist, I work with professionals across a wide range of industries. From venture teams to CEO’s, my clients’ job titles and goals vary. Innovation is a sparingly used word that gets thrown around a lot. But real innovation gets stuck in the back burner as we are engulfed by our day-to-day obligations. HEI’s need a sustainable framework to help weave innovation in the DNA of our organizations. One such framework, I am personally a big

Higher Education Digest October 2021

61

what we learned last year. This crisis will always be remembered as a wake-up call for most universities, where we learnt that many (not all) of the activities could be held in virtual formats. During the crisis most of us followed an unequivocal dictum: keep pace and survive. Now it’s time to make space to reflect and implement our learning into projects that generate results in 1-3 years. Often, projects that fall under the horizon 1 umbrella are those that optimize what HEI’s already have been following. Think incremental, small optimizations of your existing practices by expanding your student base step by step or improving internal processes. Driving away from simply ‘surviving’ or ‘winning’ over the pandemic, HEI’s will have to reflect on how to build a sustainable system of teaching, doing research and engaging with society. We will need a new and robust system in which online and physical presence is well balanced, efficiently articulated and scientifically backed up. Going back to face-to-face activities will go hand in hand with re-thinking and re-designing our education model. We will keep the technological tools that meanwhile we will have learnt to use to ensure engagement and learning effectiveness and strive to design a more flexible approach to allow students to work while studying and to build a tailor-made learning experience.

While the physical campus retains an important role in this future model, it needs to evolve and adapt to accommodate this less-structured learning approach to ensure it promotes deeper learning.

62 fan of is Three Horizon Model developed by the members of the International Futures Forum of Innovation which I believe could be great for academic leaders to reflect and build on for reshaping teaching strategies post covid. The three-horizon model could help universities visualize what an ambidextrous higher education set up would look like.

The framework is depicted below and shows three horizons spanning the present and the future — providing a “way to think about the future that recognises deep uncertainty but responds with an active orientation” (Sharpe, 2020;p. 19).

Horizon 1: “Business as usual, with important twists” The first horizon (H1) is the dominant system at present and is our most familiar. It represents ‘business as usual’.

As the world changes, so aspects of business as usual begin to feel out of place or no longer fit for purpose. Horizon 1 innovations in teaching would generally involve short term projects that generate results in 1-3 years. While as educators we are rushing “back to normal” to the rigidity of our brick-and-mortar classrooms, doesn’t mean ignoring

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Horizon 2: “New Normal for Longer” Horizon two would include the rising star businesses that have emerged in the past and extending it into new areas of revenue-driving activity. This is the transition and transformation zone — emerging innovations responding to shortcomings of H1 and anticipating possibilities of H3.

These businesses may be step-outs from the core or related extensions that simply require new capabilities and time to build. The objective of the horizons is not to provide a clear picture of the future (being a fortune teller is not among our skills – yet!), but rather to enable us to be better prepared for the possibilities that the future might hold, and even to ‘mould’ certain medium-term changes into a specific direction shaping the future by thinking about it. If you subscribe to the theory of disruptive innovation, and it is becoming increasingly clear that knowledgebased industries are deeply impacted by these disruptions.

Clearly some of these disruptions are related to technologies that has shifted the foundational relationships between students, facilitators, and knowledge. Radical shifts by formally adopting hybrid and blended learning, providing free access to accredited courses, opening campuses

overseas where students can study without losing contact, stackable micro credentials and providing non-traditional experiential opportunities that engage individual student passions and creativity that create context for the more traditional content-driven classroom programs .Horizon 2 activities require rapid prototyping, rewarding risk, acceptance and, de-centralized decision-making, and revisions to our tried and true business models.

Horizon 3: “Renewed Outlook for Higher Education” Horizon 3 ventures are long-term innovation projects that generally produce results in 5-12 years. They’re typically associated with disruptive, radical, or architectural innovations which help us envision the ‘viable world’.

We may not be able to define this future in every detail and there’s a lot we still don’t know about the length of the continued crisis-yet we can intuit what fundamental transformations lie ahead. This is the realm of “what if” scenarios, where, over a longer time, we re-imagine and re-design the alignment of vision and resources in ways that are significantly different than today. This horizon is where we challenge the fundamental relationship amongst the three legs of the educational process: students, teachers, and knowledge. Our normal reaction is to stick this horizon away on a burner that never gets turned on; these issues and opportunities are just too remote to the burdens of daily life. Unfortunately, that reaction flies in the face of reality. Horizon Three exists whether we like it or not. It would be worth generating a fascinating lists of

“what if” questions to be brainstormed that lead to endless opportunities. Many of these will be dead ends; a few, with hard work, will vault our students into a new learning process prepare them for their futures, not our past. More existential and fundamental questions also suddenly matter sooner and will require more intensive financial modeling than is typical in college and university planning processes. We must get familiar with innovation processes and integrate them into the HEI structures, or we will lose the entire set of Horizon Three opportunities.

Ask any academic leader how they are managing COVID-19, and many describe the litany of operational decisions, what they’ve prioritized for this week vs. next vs. next month. While there is tremendous complexity in this work, the problem is that the day-to-day crisis response is crowding our attention to larger strategy. The tendency to fall back into established routines creeps in every day. It’s vital, therefore, to go beyond initial information sessions to regularly reinforcing the new practices. This involves reminding people what the new practices are until they don’t feel it is “new” anymore. It’s almost like reminding drivers about new speed bumps and lane changes for a period until they get used to the change.

In an extended crisis, and given the strategic risks already upon us, the “after” cannot wait. None of us have a crystal ball to anticipate the future.

But what if the future is not waiting for us but will depend on how will we design it? In that case, don’t you want to take part?

Then, let’s imagine our future.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

63

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

HOW CAN DESIGNERS

CHANGE THE SOCIETY?

Yan Garin, Country Head - India, Ecole Intuit Lab

64 Yan Garin is the Country Head and Director of Ecole Intuit Lab; joined the brand in 2013. Before joining Ecole, Mr. Garin served as Production Coordinator with 3D Upside Down and Art Center Producer with Jeem TV. He has over three decades of rich experience in the various fields of production and operation. As the Country Head, Mr. Garin assures the liaison between Ecole Paris and India.

His vision is to cross culture the French art, culture, and heritage to the Indian audience through various methodologies and bring out the best designing professionals. In conversation with Yan Garin.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Swipe Right and Swipe Left have now become essential phrases in the millennial lexicon, and this has happened only because of this seamless amalgamation of design and digital technology

65 Which fields do you think design can permeate into in order to bring about actual change in society?

Design is a ubiquitous part of our society and if we look closely it naturally permeates into every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s a compact gadget like Alexa or a jumbo jet aircraft, design goes into the making of everything around us. And like most other fields of knowledge, design too is rapidly changing due to the thrust of digital technology. All of design is now digital and in the years to come, the digital product designer is poised to become the single most important factor in the field of design.

To further this idea of digital tech + design transforming our lives, think about how something as organic as dating in the modern world has been completely altered. Dating was something that once happened only through familial and social ties.

However, Swipe Right and Swipe Left have now become essential phrases in the millennial lexicon, and this has happened only because of this seamless amalgamation of design and digital technology.

What would you like to say to the people out there that hesitate in going forward to make design their full-time career choice and not a side passion?

I believe, passion for design is something that is deep-seated and ingrained in the way a person thinks about life and our world. Hence, when you work as a designer, you begin to live life in the most artistic and creative way possible. To be a designer is to see the world through a different lens – one of passion, creativity and innovation. There is a vast scope of design with many new avenues opening up in the design industry. It is no longer limited to

Higher Education Digest October 2021

the fashion, interior or visual design. Many technology startups today view design as a fundamental part of their business strategy and a key driver for sales and customer engagement. So to those looking to make it in the world of design, I would say that you should think of it as a way of life and channel your passion for design in the widest way in this evolved world of design.

66

Tell us about the growth trajectory of École Intuit Lab and what that indicates for the future of design in India. École is passionate about nurturing young minds who have an interest in creativity and a budding desire for design. All our programs have been created keeping in mind young students who might not have a completely etched out career path in mind but definitely have a nascent interest in design. Our job is to mould them into becoming thought leaders and creative professionals in the field of design.

We also wish to make accessible an education that is at par with international standards. And when we talk about international standards, we don’t mean a curriculum that is eurocentric or westernised, we mean an education that is truly global in nature and captures the universal spirit of design.

Is there a demand for designers in every industry? Do you think this demand will grow exponentially in the coming years? What are your thoughts?

Demand for designers in every industry is bound to grow exponentially in the coming years. Since audiences in every industry are now connected through the internet, being digitally invisible is just not an option anymore. Whether it is in the B2C market or the B2B segment, an online presence is a must for companies. In addition to this online presence—which is akin to a basic hygiene practice now—brands also have to ensure that they come across as reliable and trustworthy to their consumers, and here is where the role of design comes into play because only designers can help create visually authentic branding that can effectively convey a company’s identity and vision.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

As designers, we are always expected to have a nimble approach and be able to think on our feet

COVID-19 has disrupted many aspects of higher education, including how students are recruited, enrolled into courses. How will design institutions meet the realities of a post-pandemic world?

As designers, we are always expected to have a nimble approach and be able to think on our feet.

Hence, we are the first people in the world who should be able to adapt to the change. With respect to the pandemic, since we have campuses all across the globe and many international collaborators, we anticipated a total lockdown and drew up contingency plans in advance. Also, since we have always been a digital-forward design institution, we already had in place digital platforms for teachinglearning collaboration. This helped us to ease the transition to online learning and in fact, our students have now come to really appreciate online learning since they have regular virtual classes with designers and teachers from all over the world.

What are the predictable changes in the design education sector after COVID-19?

Design education has always been dynamic in nature and it is constantly changing in tandem with global trends. Like most other fields, design educators will also have to explore hybrid models of learning that seamlessly integrate online and offline modes of learning.

What are your views on leadership? How should education administrators ensure that their faculty members and students transform into world-class leaders in the design sector?

I believe that India would hugely benefit from the adoption of a horizontal approach to leadership rather than a pyramidal structure. Leaders should work to inspire young people and loosen the grip of rigid hierarchies. India is the youngest country in the world and it has a reservoir of brilliant minds that can be moulded into future leaders. As for the design education sector, I truly believe that if administrators trust those who work under them, and give them freedom and responsibility in equal measure, they can nurture a rich pool of talented world-class leaders who can work towards using design to create a positive impact on the lives of people.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

67

ACADEMIC VIEWS

CHANGES IN THE

HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM TODAY Prof. Steyn Heckroodt, Chief Thought Leader, PCL Learning

68

Prof. Steyn Heckroodt provides a wealth of experience and expertise when engaging with global business leaders. As a Harvard Business School Publishing Moderator, HBR Author, Dean of Academic Affairs, Founder and Chief Thought Leader for Platform for Connected Leadership, he leads a strong team of professionals in shaping the future of companies.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

We have been severely and negatively impacted by, for decades, contributing to the strength of China in becoming the preferred choice in manufacturing of goods for most companies globally, centralising global supply from one point of origin, yet we still teach the same principles of scaling in our global strategy MBA curriculums

S

ad to say, but of all industries, education seems to be the one least able to change and adapt with the times. Why do I say this? Well, compare the classroom of 1920 with the one of today, and you will see very little difference. By comparison, compare the motor vehicle industry of 1920 with that of today, and the improvement is exponential. Even post the pandemic, or in this intra-pandemic period, as students return to campus in some parts of the world, very little change is provided in both content of what is being taught, and delivery thereof.

So, in my view, higher education systems have changed little, other than embracing, to a more or lesser extent, the so-called virtual world and other aspects of digitization in both their delivery, as well as the curriculum content. As I teach for some of the leading international higher education brands globally on executive leadership programmes, as well as MBA programmes, I witness this first-hand.

We have a global shipping supply chain crisis currently due to what is reportedly renewed increased COVID-19 outbreaks at ports across China, yet supply chain curriculums taught at most universities still teaches the same principles in supply chain management. We have been severely and negatively impacted by, for decades, contributing to the strength of China in becoming the preferred choice in manufacturing of goods for most companies globally, centralising global supply from one point of origin, yet we still teach the same principles of scaling in our global strategy MBA curriculums.

Articles and reporting on COVID-19, still places the blame for our inability to balance the importance of lives versus livelihoods, balance the scales, measure the cost, justify the means, guide the philosophical discussion, and lead the future narrative, on COVID-19.

But is it really COVID-19 that has caused all of whatever disruption we are experiencing globally, or our inability to manage and lead despite disruption?

Higher Education Digest October 2021

69

70

In a training scene from the 1980s movie, Rocky III, Rocky Balboa, a fighter, a champion, struggles to regain the world heavyweight title he has lost.

But he has lost his motivation, his energy, his zest for it, his mojo, and his want and need for the title. He has lost his belief…in himself.

During one sparring round, his coach has him cornered and against the ropes with no way out. When pushed to fight back, he responds by saying: “I will do it tomorrow.”

Apollo, his former rival turned coach responds angrily, shouting at Rocky: “There is no tomorrow. There is no tomorrow!”, he shouts at the top of his voice.

Similarly, when it comes to Corona, I want to shout at the top of my voice: “There is no normal. Not a back to normal and not a new normal.” Normal implies something that is typical, usual, and predictable. There is nothing usual about Corona, nothing typical and nothing that can be anticipated or predicted. I have no Artificial Intelligence, no official global representative statistics, no secret information. I have only common sense, and this article stems from that. Love me or hate me for it, that is not the choice here. The choice is either to remain trapped in a mechanistic mindset or start practicing living with uncertainty, and getting used to ambiguity and a fluid tomorrow, forever.

It is not the end of the world. It can be an overly exciting new chapter. One in which we finally learn to live with nature, care for it, and put back into it as much as what we take out. One in which we can change the way we treat one another, not through functions of our wallets, but through empathy from our hearts. But for this we need a different approach in higher education, globally. So many systems remain in place, yielding a fragile economic system, stark in its contrast of delivering a world of social inequality, bring it closer to the tipping point of global shame. And, unfortunately, a lot of how the world looks

Higher Education Digest October 2021

today, is an outcome of what we teach our future leaders through higher education institutions.

The world as we experience it today, is a function of our thinking, it cannot change, unless we change out thinking (Einstein).

So yes, impacted on by the pandemic, that higher education institutions have been, but are they really changing because of that, very little so, I am afraid to say.

What recommendations do I have for improvements though, going forward? ● Making education more affordable for more of us. Why do international students, most times from less developed or poorer countries, still have to subsidise up to two nationals of the country in which the university is hosted? Is the idea to educate, or to let some pay for others? ● Educate professors and other teaching staff on the proper use of hybrid delivery models. Observing some universities deliver during the pandemic has seen appalling quality in content, material development and ability to teach online. And in many instances, horrifically so, no discounts were implemented by higher education institutions for delivering poorer quality. ● Understand individualistic learning styles and stop assessing in a standardised manner, awarding conformism over individualism. ● Move away from examinations to experiential assessments based on levels of understanding, not just knowledge. ● Incorporate more right-brain components in curriculum design, enabling leaders to lead during disruption through innovation and creativity. ● Incorporate more futures thinking into curriculum design, creating a tolerance for ambiguity. ● Material in content, curriculum design, and examples should be revised and changed radically at least every two years.

Powerful protection designed for PC gamers

71

NORTONLIFELOCK.COM Higher Education Digest October 2021

ACADEMIC VIEWS

FORGET ABOUT THE THIRD SPACE:

IT’S TIME WE RECOGNISE TEACHING & LEARNING SUPPORT AS A SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY Dr Kwong Nui Sim & Associate Professor Michael Cowling

72

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Teaching practices have to be in the real world, or have capacity to engage with the delivery and learning activities

73

O

k, we’re going to be brave and say it, even though it might upset some. What is a so-called third space teaching and learning support staff, employed under an administrative or professional contract, actually expected to do as part of a higher education institution? For institutions that pride themselves on continuous knowledge production and learning, why is a role with most of the time the word ‘design’ in the title fashioned in a way in which no time for scholarship is allowed? Is not scholarship a vital aspect of this role, such as a learning or institutional designer? Maybe it’s time to abandon this idea of the third space and acknowledge that what we actually need is Academic Development focused scholars, complete with academic contracts.

Teaching and Learning Support is More than Textbook Learning Don’t get us wrong, we are not trying to underestimate these professionals’ contribution and their support for teaching and learning space but like it or not, the question is “Can anyone actually be able to teach a parent how to teach their kid?”. One aspect which always puzzles us is how these so-called third space professionals showcase teachers the ways to teach when they are not teaching themselves. As teachers for more than two decades now, we still find it tricky or even challenging at times in order to advise our colleagues on how to teach as the most we can do is by sharing our own experiences as a point of reference.

However, we acknowledge that an argument will be that these third space professionals are specialised

Higher Education Digest October 2021

74

About

Dr Kwong Nui Sim Dr Kwong Nui Sim is an award-winning emerging scholar/academic committed to enhance practices in the use of educational technology for students and teachers as well as within doctoral education and academic development capacity. She is currently a senior lecturer/learning and teaching consultant at AUT Learning Transformation LAB, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and has been active in the scholarship of higher education for about a decade now.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

in education but this indicates that ‘teaching’ is merely ‘textbook’ knowledge. Even more so, there is no such thing as a ‘perfectly’ designed course as ‘one size can never fit all’, especially when a lot of ‘teaching’ is based on ‘on the spot’ responses/experiences. A typical example will be that a brilliant learning task idea works perfectly for a cohort of students but it is a disaster in the previous or next cohort. In other words, the academics have to learn to upskill themselves in terms of pedagogical ideas even though a lot of times this comes with experiences.

Teaching practices have to be in the real world, or have capacity to engage with the delivery and learning activities. The design from our third space professionals, while providing a foundation of enhancing teaching and learning practices, we could not deny the fact that ‘nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced’.

About

Michael Cowling Associate Professor Michael Cowling is an awardwinning technology strategist and communicator committed to fostering thoughtfulness in educational technology for students and educators. He is currently an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at CQ University Australia and has been a leader in educational technology and computer science education for over 20 years.

Teaching and Learning Support as Scholarship The most concerning aspect is that a lot of these third space professionals are on contract and/or are not allowed/ interested to engage with scholarship, which means once the courses are ‘well developed’, it constitutes the end of the teaching development. The situation seems to be more problematic when these professionals appear to be able to keep up with developments without academic rigour.

Research is the answer. As argued by one of us in a recent public piece, ‘Scholarship is central to academic practice’.

It could be quite concerning that teaching development relies on a group of professionals who are situated in quite an awkward position. Moving forward, we advocate that it will be more practical and sustainable if these skillful professionals take the idea of academic development on board as part of their professional growth. If leadership development is becoming more significant in today’s world, why not also scholarly development? Similar to academics, learning designers have to have time to engage with the ‘three-legged stool’ of being an academic.

In short, while these third space positions are considered as significant in today’s higher education domain when the complexity of relationships between teaching and learning practices is increasing as we rethink higher education in the age of digital technologies, we propose it is time to move on and advance the understanding of how students, as well as academics, go about acquiring the skills and knowledge needed to advance newly created roles. Let’s kill the third space and have proper academic developers (the third space professionals should be academics!) who can engage with academics at all times in order to enhance academic development constantly in every higher education institution.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

75

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

INVESTING IN

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WILL FUTURE PROOF YOUR ORGANISATION – HERE’S WHY Emellia Koukash, Managing Director, KC Academy

76

Emellia is the Founder and Managing Director of Koukash Consultancy and KC Academy, a fullservice communications and training consultancy driving impactful communication through our bespoke solutions.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

Investing in developing new skills and capabilities among employees can drive up loyalty for employers, lead to happier workers, and lead to more satisfied customers in return

L

ockdowns have created a monumental shift in working practices and made homeworking the norm for many. The long-term impact of the pandemic on the global workforce is beginning to emerge.

From the “great resignation” to organisations implementing flexible working hours, it is clear that human capital and ensuring the workforce’s wellbeing are priorities for organisations worldwide.

While some organisations are looking at reducing hours in the office and prioritising emotional wellbeing, it has amplified a fundamental issue: how do you continue to train, develop and support your employees in a post-pandemic world?

The personal and organisational benefits of professional development cannot be understated: not only does it equip employees with skills that will benefit the organisation, but from a unique

perspective, it enables them to feel valued and invested in by their employer.

For instance, at KC Academy, we have worked with numerous organisations across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. They continuously commit to upskilling by implementing training programmes that organisations can deliver virtually to all employees.

Yet despite this, a global survey by Deloitte found that less than half of respondents (47 per cent) think that their company is making a significant investment in their professional development, and only 34 per cent are happy with their organisation’s investment in improving their skills and performance.

We are finding that choosing not to invest in an employees’ future can damage employers’ ability to attract and retain talent. Investing in developing new skills and capabilities among employees can drive up loyalty for employers, lead to happier workers, and lead to more satisfied customers in return.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

77

So how exactly can professional development improve your organisation?

We’ve identified three critical areas that nontechnical training can improve and that is reliant on being developed by external factors such as training: ● Communication Skills: The need to structure, articulate and deliver the a clear and compelling narrative remains as critical as ever, regardless of your industry.

78

Despite the potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the company as a whole and the individual employees with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment

Higher Education Digest October 2021

● New Business Pitching: from senior management to executives, new business meetings require pitch preparation, coordination and delivery. ● Strategic Thinking and Leadership: Managing ‘constructive chaos’ across disciplines, cultures, and even countries is not a new challenge, but it is undoubtedly more significant with today’s constraints. By investing in training your talent, you are ensuring your talent pipeline is robust and ready to take on tomorrow’s challenges.

Training presents a prime opportunity to expand the knowledge base of all employees, however many organisations find the development opportunities expensive and struggle to rationalise the long-term value of an upskilled workforce. Despite the potential drawbacks, training and development provides both the company as a whole and the individual employees with benefits that make the cost and time a worthwhile investment. Your organisation’s biggest asset is its talent, and investing in training and professional development is an investment in your organisation.

Our clients continuously report that employee retention increases following their employees participate in a KC Academy course, and that sentiment is echoing across the training and professional development industry. We have found organisations who fund professional development training programmes see a significant increase in the duration of their employees tenure, and their commitment, productivity and contribution to the organisation.

By investing in professional development – whether that is through 5 or 10 day training courses or virtual learning programs, you are proactively combatting feelings of dissatisfaction in your workforce while broadening your talent pipeline, fostering inclusive cultures, and creating ongoing upskilling programs for the future of your industry.

12379

Higher Education Digest October 2020

Higher Education Digest October 2021

ACADEMIC VIEWS

NEED FOR LEADERSHIP

& STRATEGY GUIDANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION Professor Chris Kinsville-Heyne, Professor of Leadership & Strategy, Hult International Business School

80 Chris Kinsville-Heyne is a Professor of Leadership & Strategy at Hult International Business School. As a British army officer, he commanded a NATO Mobile News Team at the end of the Civil War in the Former Yugoslavia (FY), returning shortly afterwards as a NATO Spokesman. As a Staff Officer, he designed the Crisis Communication plan for Media Operations in FY and was the focal point for all NATO communication prior to the Kosovo campaign. He has served in most NATO countries, training personnel to deliver strategic messages in challenging environments. Chris is also a Royal Engineers Intelligence Officer.

Higher Education Digest October 2021

While broad-based theories suffice in the classroom, the practicalities can quickly unwind in the office or on the workshop floor

W

hat does good leadership look like to you? Is it making sure you have all the latest information about the company or business? Maybe it’s making sure you get to attend those training courses you need to pass for that promotion? Perhaps it’s a private and kind word when things are tough at home? I only ask as it’s very different to each of us.

Whatever it is, there’s a fair chance that the leader or manager that has just displayed those characteristics has either picked them up on the job, or has worked for someone who has treated them that way or just simply feels that’s the way they should behave.

Let’s look at some of the biggest companies in the world and their leaders. How about Apple? Ok, Tim Cook runs it now but it was the brainchild of Steve Jobs. Was he a good leader? Well, again, that depends on your definition. Was he a genius that saw the future of computing? Yes, no question. Was he exact and demanding when it came to performance?

Yes, definitely. But, if you read his biography you come away with a sense of a person whowas arrogant, talked harshly to people around him, cheated his business partners, fired people for little or no reason,

was argumentative and lost control of his emotions.

Who taught him to be like that? No one. He was his own man and he liked things his way.

How about Elon Musk? The guy who founded PayPal and Tesla must be a great leader with a terrific head for strategy, surely? It certainly seems to be the case, as people who know him describe him as having a nervous energy and a “let’s get stuff done” sort of attitude. However, if someone asks him a question which he considers stupid, well, that person needs to look out. Let’s say he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. A strategic thinker? Definitely. Inspirational? For sure.

And this is another junction where things become difficult. Does that make him a good manager? The answer is, probably not.

In fact, to my way of understanding business, leadership and strategic thinking are a million miles away from management. How come? Well, I see it like this; A leader comes up with direction, the feel, the “what’s next?”. A manager interprets what that direction and feel needs. And makes “what’s next?” happen.

I’ve consulted at many companies around the world where this basic idea seems to have been lost, particularly where successful workers are

Higher Education Digest October 2021

81

82

Get students into businesses to learn how things actually function

promoted into management, where they suddenly become less successful. Ever wondered why? It’s not that they are less driven, less intelligent, less able. It’s because they are expected to lead a team, and they simply don’t have the skill set to do that effectively.

When I served in the British military I attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, which is, in my completely biased opinion, the finest leadership school in the world. The Academy moto tells you what you’ve getting into from the start, “Serve to Lead”. But it’s amazing how many people automatically assume, because I chose an army career, I

Higher Education Digest October 2021

spent all my time shouting at people to try to get them to do what I needed. They couldn’t be further from the truth. If you have to shout at people, you’re probably doing something wrong. After all, it was the great American leader, Dwight D. Eisenhower who said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone to do what you want because they want to do it.”

And here’s where I think higher education should play its part. Teaching business management and strategy does not prepare you to become an effective leader. You cannot control or force employees to do something they don’t want to do. So, while broad-based theories suffice in the classroom, the practicalities can quickly unwind in the office or on the workshop floor.

I believe universities should teach the art of effective delegation, of empowerment, of enabling individuals, of understanding how a team functions. I read something a while back which was about an oil company and how they were going to manage Millennials in their division. They gave them a complicated task to do with an undersea pipeline, a pumping station and dozens of other things, but complete freedom to do what they needed to in order to solve the problem; they didn’t have to be in the office every day, they only had to report in to their manager once a week, etc.

After three weeks, the team of Millennials turned up at the office and said they had something to show the senior management. Excited the bosses lined up and were shown a contraption which they couldn’t identify. When they were asked what it was, the Millennials explained they had built a remote submarine out of a beer barrel. There was an embarrassed silence before one of the bosses asked why they had done that. The answer was simple; they wanted to see who would manage the main project.

They chose the person who was best at handing a series of complex calculations, who communicated well with the rest of the team, and who understood how to keep to a budget and a timeline. That person let them get on with what they were good at, and they reciprocated. Neat, huh?

I also liked the story of how a cosmetic company reduced the number applicants for a handful of intern jobs by just asking a simple strategic question. “If we gave you $2,000 on Monday, what three things could you do for the company by the end of the week?” The traditional tens of thousands of replies for the intern job became a trickle of just a few hundred. It asked the potential interns to think strategically, and the majority just couldn’t.

In summary, get students into businesses to learn how things actually function. Let them talk to the workers on the ground but also let them talk to the board and the CEO. Get interactive with them. Who knows, you might even see them doing what you want them to do – because they want to do it!

83

Higher Education Digest October 2021

84

Higher Education Digest October 2021