How should higher education change?
By Kumar Vikrant
The ongoing pandemic has proven to be an eye-opener regarding the lens through which we view our higher education (university-level) system. In addition to the obvious advantage of avoiding adverse health issues, students can attend online classes from wherever they like at their leisure. Online courses also save commute times, which can then be utilized by the students for other meaningful purposes. This leads to whether conventional in-person classes and their high cost (in light of the heartbreaking and ever-rising student debt) are genuinely worth it?
In my opinion, the pandemic has shown us that specific courses can indeed be transferred entirely to the online mode, resulting in lowered tuition fees. Building upon this, the curriculum can be transformed to include a more extensive selection of online classes with reduced costs to make them affordable. Cyber universities can also get help in becoming more legitimate and attract a wider range of students. Of course, certain subjects (e.g., engineering) cannot be fully conducted through the online medium as they will require hands-on training.
On the other hand, the conventional in-person mode of classes does hold something fundamental regarding human interaction. Waking up early to attend morning classes, dressing up to make oneself presentable, organizing one's schedule to plan the day in advance, interacting with peer groups, and having discussions with professors face to face, all hold great significance in the overall development of the human psyche.
Humans exist in the real-world and not in cyberspace. So, learning to read people's expressions, tones of voice, and gathering social cues are all an essential part of our civilization's build. After all, genuine bonds are formed with in-person interactions rather than isolated cyber ones. Also, there may be an enhanced risk of depression, social anxiety, and averseness towards nature due to prolonged social withdrawal.
It is time for us to rethink and optimize our education system for overall societal growth acknowledging the advantages of online classes in conjunction with the meaningfulness of actual human interactions. With the advent of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, we need to be more accepting of the online mode of education and overcome our prejudices regarding in-person instruction. Simultaneously, a hybrid model can be designed to lower the overall education cost, alleviate the crippling student debt burden, and maintain the overall mental well-being and growth of the next generation of students.
Kumar Vikrant (kvikrant071@gmail. com) is a doctoral student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul, Republic of Korea.