After COVID unis will have more short courses, more online teaching

Universities will play a key role in upskilling people for new jobs in the post-COVID economy.

Professor Helen Bartlett, vice-chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Helping people reinvent themselves for the post-COVID economy is a key role for a regional university said University of the Sunshine Coast vice-chancellor Helen Bartlett, who started in the role last month.

She said the university was working on new types of courses which would be delivered in a different way, with online teaching playing a larger permanent role.

There will be “more of the short courses where students can gain credit for doing training in particular areas that they need to upskill”, she said.

Professor Bartlett, who currently chairs the Regional Universities Network and was until recently vice-chancellor of Federation University, said she believed that campuses of regional universities could attract a greater share of students in the post-COVID environment.

“Families sending children away to the cities is costly. So this may become a more financially appealing prospect for families for the younger end of our student population.”

She said regional universities such has USC which has a string of campuses north of Brisbane, were also likely to be in strong demand from mature age students.

“We’re going to be tapping into the needs of the regions for reskilling and upskilling and lifelong learning.

Federal government policies are favouring regional universities and Education Minister Dan Tehan’s new funding package offers regional campuses more support than city ones.

Professor Bartlett also said the fact that the pandemic had forced teaching online was driving major improvements in online education.

“This isn’t just about putting a lecture, power points and notes on to a platform. This is about creating interactive learning opportunities so that students can have a meaningful exchange with their colleagues and with their lecturers,” she said.

“And every week, you know, we’re seeing staff becoming more and adept at adding different applications, different innovations into their suite of tools for teaching.”

She said the process had not been easy and while some staff adapted quickly, others were taking more time. But it offered permanent efficiency benefits to a multi campus university like USC because students on different campuses could do the same course with online lectures, and attend their local campus for face-to-face tutorials.

But Professor Bartlett said that it was still important for younger students to come to campus for socialisation and the exercise of learning with others. ”It’s critically important being able to engage in a face-to-face debate,” she said. “So I think retaining an element of on campus is going to be important.”

Professor Bartlett said that such changes in the delivery model for education would not reduce choice for students, but would “increase the opportunities to access more courses, through more flexible modes of delivery”.

“That’s really the way forward for USC, because if we were to continue delivering, you know, 100 per cent face-to-face for everything with very small numbers in a number of campuses, it’s simply wouldn’t pay. It’s just not a viable model anymore.”