Be Heard: Futuristic view of education

Looking at how Dubai has pushed innovation to the limit, it is likely that the first University of the Future (UOF) will be launched here. Universities have to reinvent themselves in order to remain attractive to the younger generation, as well as stay profitable.

The present academia, on the contrary, focuses on routine programmes with enriched ‘junk education’, which has no mental protein, leading to ‘mind obesity’.

Educators at the UOF will be called ‘knowledge givers’, and will be the true modern Socrates of academia. Students will be called ‘knowledge seekers’ and classes will be referred to as ‘knowledge studios’, where a high level of synergy will exist between students and educators. The focus in a UOF is on knowledge augmentation and not on grades. Great learners are the product of great educators. UOF educators will be true, dedicated ‘human amplifiers’, and turn education into a memorable experience.

The campus will be totally virtual — students will be able to attend classes from anywhere. UOF will be administered through a cloud of real-time information arteries. Campus activities and class sessions will be monitored to gauge educator performance and student learning progress.

No failures

No student will fail at UOF. Everyone will graduate with honours. Advanced technologies will be immersed into the learning process. All students will have ‘subdermal assistive chips’ as unique radio identifiers to connect them directly to the educators, to manage tuition payments and track graduation plans. Upon graduation, student laureates will earn a Certificate of Authenticity of Evidence of Work, with guaranteed leadership positions in the work place.

Classes will have artificially intelligence systems to allow virtual video conferencing and team work. The assistive chip will track student movement, parking, class attendance and plagiarism-proof exams. There won’t be any room for cheating. Biomedicine will be an integral part of UOF. Systems with artificial intelligence will be used to accelerate knowledge augmentation, to enhance the biological intelligence and comprehension of all students.

To complement the assistive chip, students will have an ‘academic digital companion’, with which to record all classes, have a video conference with their educators, discuss projects and work jointly with peers on assignments. Students will be able to attend several class sessions concurrently.

The true value of UOF will be applied knowledge acquisition from educators and scenarios from the real world.

In a knowledge economy, where competitive edge is directly tied to innovation, academia has to move forward. The slumber is over. The renaissance has been long overdue.

— The writer is a New York-based educator and Gulf News reader.