Managing Higher Education Technology: An Interview with Dr. Tony Bates — from the Higher Education Management Group

However, how that mission is delivered must and will change, if universities and colleges are to survive (or rather, if independent, publicly funded educational institutions are to survive). In particular, we have to move away from the idea of the classroom as the default model for teaching and learning, to looking it as just one of many tools we have for teaching and learning. If over half the population needs not only post-secondary education, but also ongoing lifelong learning, and the main means of communication are technological, we cannot effectively provide higher education in a factory-like structure organized like a factory, with everyone at the same place at the same time. So it is in the delivery and organization of teaching and learning where fundamental change is needed.