OUR GLOBAL MANIFESTO: WHAT WOULD A UNIVERSITY LOOK LIKE IF WE HAD TO CREATE ONE FROM SCRATCH?
MANIFESTO: THE FUTURE OF LEARNING
In March 2021, SEK Education Group launched a think tank on “Future & Learning” where 92 experts and students from around the world came together to reflect on how the university of the 3rd millennium should respond to the current society needs.
This analysis is an ongoing exercise, open to contributions from the society as a whole. As a result from this think tank, a framework for discussion was established on how universities should face the challenges that COVID brings along and how to reinvent themselves.
From this think tank a set of conclusions were drawn based on the major topics addressed: lifelong learning, campus infrastructures, higher education financing, the school-university transition, among others. These conclusions are summarised in our GLOBAL MANIFESTO.
OUR GLOBAL MANIFESTO:
THE FUTURE OF LEARNING
12 key points open for discussion to answer the following question: What would a university be like if we had to create one in the next few years?
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1
STUDENT-CENTRED
Schools must ensure students at the core of their design process, aspiring towards a new technological humanism that leads to a new 21st century Renaissance. All this using a multidisciplinary approach, which promotes the development of competencies, fostering civic commitment and an entrepreneurial spirit through the co-creation of content.
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2
COLLABORATIVE AND OPEN ECOSYSTEMS
Students’ learning processes will not be the responsibility of a single educational institution. The trend will increasingly be towards open and collaborative ecosystems in which personalised learning proposals will be generated, with multidisciplinary content from different institutions, industry and new educational agents.
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3
DATA-INFORMED ORGANISATION
The school management model must focus on data in order to understand each student's choices and their own context. A broader understanding of students implies a greater ability to personalise instruction and anticipate individual learning needs.
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4
PERSONAL LEARNING ITINERARIES
The new unit of measurement is the student. This vision drives the development of flexible learning models, such as educational subscriptions or the modular construction of content that is certifiable and cumulative and that allows the creation of customisable learning pathways.
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5
LIFELONG LEARNING
Today, it is necessary to learn, unlearn and relearn over the course of our lives. Therefore, educational institutions must adapt their model to each student’s life cycle, as well as to their financial capacities and their opportunities for interaction with the rest of the community, so that they become ‘lifelong academic and learning partners’.
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6
NOMAD CAMPUS AND FLEXIBLE FORMATS
The educational campus goes beyond the limits of its physical infrastructure and must be designed from an open, interactive and hybrid perspective. Technology makes it possible to generate formats without pre established models in which physical and digital combinations multiply everybody’s learning opportunities.
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7
COMPETENCIES FOR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL FUTURE
Learning models must be adapted to the needs of the labour market, but also to students’ abilities and interests and the demands of our society. Collaboration between educational entities and business becomes more fluid and symbiotic, giving way to co-designed and cotaught courses that favour students’ participation in the profesional environment.
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8
NEW ROLES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
New training models and social needs have given rise to new professional profiles. Advances in learning sciences underscore the importance of teaching excellence in providing a transformative learning experience, as well as the need to develop interdisciplinary research to meet the most important challenges of our time.
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9
TESTING AND EXPERIMENTAL SANDBOX AREA
Educational institutions must develop an entrepreneurial mindset, adopting disruptive and innovative models, expanding and sharing successes and learning from mistakes. The creation of spaces that serve as a testing and experimentation sandbox areas facilitates the agile implementation of pilot projects, as well as the measurement and analysis of their impact and results.
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10
WELLNESS AND BALANCE
The physical and emotional wellbeing of all members of the educational community has become a priority. A holistic approach is required in which healthy behaviour that provides emotional balance and physical wellbeing can be learned, shared, and practised.
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11
SOCIAL COMMITMENT
Educational institutions are committed to contributing to a more sustainable future with programmes aimed at promoting social innovation, the circular economy, equity, diversity and environmental conservation.
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12
FREE AND CRITICAL THINKING
Educational institutions are essential forums to promote critical thinking, debate and analysis of divergent ideas, capable in turn of creating new knowledge based on research and scientific study. No educational entity can be constrained to one single way of thinking.