Think of the number of schools, colleges and
universities around us! It’s amazing. In fact they are not sufficient for the
growing population. The problem is global in nature.
In every country people feel that educating the people is the only way to have
an orderly society and government. So every nation is putting its utmost
efforts to develop educational institutions everywhere including rural and
urban areas.
Parents are earning to educate their children. It is the dream of
parents to see their sons and daughters as some highly paid professionals in
future. Most of the elite group of people like to send their children to higher
education. Higher education brings in specialization in particular field of
study. Therefore higher education is getting importance nowadays. There are
renowned educational institutions in every country where we find super
speciality in all subjects. Such institutions and the super specialists are not
sufficient to satisfy the requirement of the world population. Colleges and
Universities are unlikely to keep up the demand for advanced education. These
institutions often run under financial constraints because of the ever
increasing salaries for specialists and also the cost of infrastructure needed
for research purposes. Hence the tuition fees are rocketing year after year.
Paying huge amounts of fees for admission in such academic institutions is
possible only for certain section of people. People are proud to say that they
are Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard educated. But think of the people who do not
have the means to join those institutions. They limit their education below the
advanced level even though they are good enough to take up such studies. In
other words it is only a section of people who are rich can go for advanced
higher education.
In a time when knowledge is free and communication is easy and
technology is at everyone’s hand, one has to think seriously about the future
of higher education. We should not forget that every individual – male or
female – has right to education! Keeping this principle in view, is it possible
to extend the higher education to all and all over the world?
In fact, educationists experimented the possibilities to out-reach
education instead of on-campus teaching. One of the results came out of the
study is the Open Universities which run courses, examinations and issue
diploma or degree certificates. People can learn at their leisure time in their
own places. Such an approach is in operation successfully in many countries
including India. Still people say that on-campus studies are better than
out-reach programs. If someone is serious in out-reach programs he or she can
learn and earn a degree. It is also felt that only small fraction of students
have the drive and the perseverance to learn on their own. In general, these
students need help to clear their doubts. It is possible that fellow students
can help. Interactive studies help to better student learning. Bringing quality
education to the people who would never be able to go to Universities like
Oxford and Cambridge is essential. Therefore on-line education system is in
operation in certain subjects from some universities. Through this system one
professor can easily teach 1000 to 50,000 students at a time. It alters the
economics of education! Also it provides a ‘freemium’ education not the
‘premium’ education. Stanford University of the USA has come out with global
on-line education system successfully.
The future higher education is going to be offered on-line with the
help of social networks like ‘You Tube’ and ‘Facebook.’ In 2008 one such
teaching program was designed by the American Companies. It is called as
Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOCs). It is an internet based teaching program
designed to handle thousands of student simultaneously, in part using the
tactics of social net-working websites. Thus the future of educations is not
going to be the one through which we were educated. The new generation is going
to learn on-line and earn degrees on-line. Let us hope that all – rich and
poor, men and women – are going to get the benefit as we use the mobile phones
today. It was a dream but it is going to be a reality very soon.
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