The events of 2020 have rapidly shaped the way the world lives, works, and learns and getting staff and students back on campus safely is the goal for universities everywhere. Never before have any of us faced such a challenge - knowing what to do if there is a positive case and dealing with it promptly and professionally. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented disruption to the academic calendar. Having faced the initial hurdles, universities across the globe are considering what the current situation means for recruitment and admissions over the summer and beyond.

When we stop to think that every minute 450,000+ Tweets are posted; every hour 4.2 Million photos are uploaded to Instagram; and each day 2.5 Quintillion (no, not a made-up number) bytes of new data are created worldwide, we can appreciate the need to maintain order and establish security for the most sensitive forms of information.

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation (OECD) has launched its 2019 Indicators Report, Education at a Glance.

Tribal recently held an evening of wide-ranging discussion and opinion on the state of higher education.  This included a contirbutions on how the policy framework and rapid technological change interact with each other; increasing participation levels over time; investment in the student experience; and fax machines!   

Based on the many challenges we face as a sector, we asked four colleagues for their thoughts on what higher education will look like in the future.

When it comes to education, can Government policy-makers ever hope to keep up with rapid technology change? Should it even be a consideration? Does, in fact, policy-making conflict with the rapid technological advances within Higher Education?  And does either improve student success? So many questions, but do you agree with the experts on this?

Apprenticeships are a core part of BT’s Talent Strategy; ensuring they maintain and develop a highly skilled workforce. Recent reforms have allowed BT to link their apprenticeship strategy strongly to their culture and development principles.  BT have used apprenticeships to fund initiatives that address attraction, retention and performance challenges through developing internal career pathways with accredited learning solutions. 

Student Experience in 2008 could be summarised as 9am-5pm support, long enrolment queues, paper-based grant applications, and moving from building to building to resolve any issues that may be had. The great hope in 2008 was to be able to enrol from home, ask a question at any time, and receive notifications electronically through email.

As the dust settles from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) year one and universities completing their next intake of students, we take a look at the impact it has had.

Getting the most out of anything can be difficult, sometimes impossible. Consider some other things in life – a mobile phone or better still a new car.  You watch the TV advert of the car speeding along a traffic-free mountain road and imagine yourself at the wheel.  The car accelerates through the hairpins easily - no bus lanes, cyclists or potholes – just you, the road and the soundtrack from a Bond movie.