Demography/ Teaching - Just as is the case for healthcare where the average age of Nurses and Doctors in close to 50 and where the more experienced professional staff are exhausted, so there is a demographic crisis facing Universities where upto 50% of Professors could retire in the next 10 years. At the other side is the lack of supply as the demographic pyramid inverts and we look into the next decade at a shrinking labour pool and a shift in the values of young professionals who need more control and more autonomy. The question here is how to attract and retain the best staff in a staffing environment where every university will open the cheque book and aggressively recruit. The follow up question is maybe it will not be possible to staff at current levels - then what? This leads us to ask - Can the existing structures and culture of work at universities remain or will be we have to find another way of delivering? Then - if we have to change the delivery mechanism which includes at its heart the pedagogy - how will we bring the staff along with the need to change?
Economics for Students - The cost of attending a Canadian university full time is just under $15,000 a year or $60,000. The cost in 20 years is estimated to be about $25,000 a year or just under $100,000. Families are just not able to cope even now and students who have taken out loans are finding that they are trapped even before they try and look for work, buy a car or buy a house. More and more students will have to work full time to cope with these costs or find that they just cannot make it financially. Universities will have to find another way (probably electronically) of delivering an education that can be afforded by the student.
What is a Student - When we think of student, we think of a young person. There will be millions of Boomers entering their senior years in the next decade. Many of these will want to learn but they will not want to be part of the degree mill linked to a job that is set up for their children. They will truly want to learn for no other reason than to learn. They will not see University as a ticket to a job they will look to universities as a source of learning - what a concept! For instance my 73 year old brother in law is studying Russian. Why? Because he wants to read the classics in Russian. Again a 73 year old ex banker will expect a very different relationship with the Prof than a 21 year old and will expect a different relationship with the university.
What is needed by the workplace - The problems of the workplace are so challenging that orthodox thinking will not carry the day any more. Nor will an ethos of learning that confines it to 4 years at the start of a career. The Conference Board of Canada feels that the three most important attributes of new entrants to the workplace today should be:
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People who can communicate think and continue to learn throughout their lives
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People who can demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours, responsibility and adaptability and
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People who can work with others
If we are honest with ourselves this is not how we organize much of the traditional pedagogy. In this context Michael Fullan thinks that universities have to review their processes and pedagogy. In his book "Change Forces" he states that "The development of a sense of community and the habits and skills of collaboration is also a central tenet of all proposals to develop schools as Learning Organizations ... The real world demands collaboration, the collective solving of problems.. learning to get along.. to function effectively in a group is essential.. the act of sharing ideas, of having to put one's views clearly to others, of finding defensible compromises is in itself educative"
I see all these forces as being the converging arms of the vice that are squeezing the traditional University. We feel the forces now and they will become I fear overwhelming in the next 5-10 years.
So what do we do? It all looks a bit overwhelming. But I think not. Our research is showing us a clear track - to work on the culture - to work on the relationships themselves.
4:50:40 PM 
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