Building Better Universities. Strategies - Spaces - Technologies

258 Pages·05.63 MB·English

by  Jos Boys

BUILDING BETTER
UNIVERSITIES
Building Better Universities provides a wide-ranging summary and critical
review of the increasing number of groundbreaking initiatives undertaken by
universities and colleges around the world. It suggests that we have reached a
key moment for the higher education sector in which the services, location,
scale, ownership, and distinctiveness of education are being altered dramati-
cally, whether universities and colleges want it or not. Th ese shifts are aff ecting
traditional assumptions about both the future ‘shape’ of higher education
institutions, and the roles of—and relationships between—learners, teachers,
researchers, managers, businesses, communities, and other stakeholders.
Building Better Universities aims to bridge the gap between educational
ideas about what the university is, or should be ‘for,’ and its day-to-day prac-
tices and organization. It roams across strategic, operational, and institutional
issues; space planning and building design; and technological change, to bring
together issues that are often dealt with separately. By analyzing the many chal-
lenges faced by higher education in the contemporary period and exploring the
various ways universities and colleges are responding, this powerful book aims
to support a step-change in debates over the future of higher education and to
enable senior managers and faculty to develop more strategic and creative ways
of enabling eff ective twenty-fi rst-century learning in their own institutions.
Jos Boys is currently an academic developer at the University of New South
Wales, Sydney. She trained originally in architecture, followed by many years’
experience teaching design and contextual studies in a variety of higher edu-
cational institutions at diff erent levels. She has also worked as an educational
technologist and academic developer, developing ways to enhance learning
through both technology-rich and pedagogically sound resources and delivery.
She has been a consultant for the UK Joint Information Systems Committee
and has written several books on higher education, including Towards Cre-
ative Learning Spaces: Re-Th inking the Architecture of Post-Compulsory Education
(2010) and, with Peter Ford, Th e e-Revolution and Post-Compulsory Education:
Using Business Models to Deliver Quality Education (2007).
This page intentionally left blank
BUILDING BETTER
UNIVERSITIES
Strategies, Spaces,
Technologies
Jos Boys
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Th ird Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
Th e right of Jos Boys to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by
her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boys, Jos.
Building better universities: strategies, spaces, technologies / Jos Boys.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Education, Higher—Aims and objectives. 2. Education, Higher—Eff ect of
technological innovations on. 3. Educational change. I. Title.
LB2322.2.B72 2014
378.01—dc23
2014017954
ISBN: 978-0-415-85931-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-85932-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-79888-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Caslon Pro
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Textboxes ix
Introduction: The Shifting Boundaries
of Higher Education 1
Chapter 1 Reshaping Universities and Colleges 19
Th eme 1.1: Alternative Universities? 21
Th eme 1.2: Radical Restructuring 33
Th eme 1.3 Enhancing the Student Off er 38
Chapter 2 New Patterns of Public and Private
Competition and Collaboration 47
Th eme 2.1: Hybrid Nonprofi t and For-Profi t
Entities 57
Th eme 2.2: Social Enterprise and Civic Engagement 63
Th eme 2.3: Widening Participation 67
Th eme 2.4: Improving Student Performance 71
Chapter 3 Responding to Internationalization 77
Th eme 3.1: International Collaborations 82
Th eme 3.2: International Networks 85
Th eme 3.3: Developing Global Citizens 88
V
VI CONTENTS
Chapter 4 Changing Learning Spaces 95
Th eme 4.1: Comprehensive Campus Redesign 108
Th eme 4.2: Redesigning Processes 116
Th eme 4.3: Creating Hybrid Spaces 119
Chapter 5 Beyond Virtual Learning Environments 125
Th eme 5.1: Th e Massifi cation of eLearning 133
Th eme 5.2: Seamless Virtual and Physical
Integration 137
Th eme 5.3: Increasing Digital Literacy 139
Th eme 5.4: Using Big Data 145
Th eme 5.5: Open Badging 150
Chapter 6 The Implications of New Technologies
for Learning 157
Th eme 6.1: Changing Learning and
Teaching Methods? 162
Th eme 6.2: Open Sourcing and Sharing 170
Th eme 6.3: Embodied Learning 178
C onclusion: Learning in a
Post-University World? 189
Bibliography 217
Index 233
List of Figures
1.1 Singularity University’s ‘request a speaker’ webpage 23
1.2 Th e Georgian townhouse in which the New College of the
Humanities is based in Bedford Square, London , UK 24
1.3 Exterior of the School of Life, London 29
1.4 University of Vermont Clean Energy Fund: Call for ideas
and example projects 41
2.1 BALTIC 39, University of Northumbria, Newcastle
upon Tyne, UK 66
2.2 Interior of Ideas Store, Whitechapel, East London , UK 71
3.1 Global universities’ extent of international reach and
corresponding internationalization initiatives 79
4.1 Interior, Swanston Academic Building RMIT,
Melbourne, Australia 96
4.2 Entrance atrium, Ross Business School, University
of Michigan, USA 97
4.3 Entrance foyer, and student hub, Business School,
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), UK 97
4.4 Example of seating, entrance foyer, University
of Westminster, London , UK 98
4.5 Diff erences in Conventional and Learning Landscape
planning models 100
4.6 Development workshop for student-led design of informal
learning space, University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland 104
4.7 School ‘hub,’ University of Melbourne, Australia 109
4.8 Informal learning space, University of Melbourne, Australia 109
4.9 Informal learning space as ‘club,’ University of
Melbourne, Australia 111
4.10 Interior, Musashino Art Library, Tokyo, Japan 111
4.11 University of Sydney learning networks diagram, showing
interconnections across formal, informal, and virtual spaces 113
VII
VIII LIST OF FIGURES
4.12 Steelcase University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA 116
4.13 Table showing archetypical attributes for
knowledge environments 117
4.14 Informal learning spaces, Karolinska Insitute,
Stockholm, Sweden 118
4.15 Circulation designed to enhance chance encounters,
Stata Center, MIT, Boston, USA 120
4.16 Combined MA teaching space and start-up units, White Space,
University of Abertay, Scotland 121
5.1 Open Learning Initiative Carnegie Mellon University,
diagram outlining processes and collaborators 136
5.2 Main foyer, Central Library, Manchester, UK 140
5.3 Interactive tables and fl oor surfaces, Central Library,
Manchester, UK 141
5.4 Overview of digital literacy competence areas and
competences 142
5.5 Th e JISC Developing Literacies Programme: drivers
and emerging themes 144
5.6 Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure 153
6.1 Detailed Logic Model: showing intended OER activities,
outcomes, and goals 174
6.2 ALTO website, University of the Arts, London, UK 176
6.3 Maker Space, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 182
6.4 Proboscis, Tangible Souvenirs project , London, UK 184
7.1 Value propositions of traditional nonprofi t universities 196
7.2 Vitae, services for researchers 208
7.3 University of the Th ird Horizon (H3Uni) Th ree
Horizons Model 213
List of Textboxes
1.1 Th e School of Life, London, UK 27
1.2 Proposed London School of Architecture 30
1.3 Western Governors University 35
1.4 d.school Institute of Design, Stanford University 39
1.5 University of Lincoln, UK: Key Features of Student as Producer
Framework 43
2.1 University of Phoenix 50
2.2 BPP 52
2.3 Kaplan Open Learning and the University of Essex 57
2.4 CISCO National Virtual Incubator and the Digital Peninsula,
Greenwich, London 62
2.5 University of Northampton Social Enterprise Strategy 64
2.6 Th e Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 72
3.1 University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus 82
3.2 Th e WISE Initiative 87
3.3 New York University, Abu Dhabi 89
4.1 Th e Smart Campus 100
4.2 University College London, Newham Campus Development UK 106
4.3 University of Sydney Learning Spaces Strategies: Conceptual
Framework 114
4.4 White Space, University of Abertay, Scotland 122
5.1 MITx 127
5.2 Tompkins Cortland Community College 138
5.3 Essex University Data Research Center 146
6.1 Khan Academy 159
6.2 Some Principles of Connectivism 164
6.3 Process.arts, University of the Arts, London, UK 176
6.4 Augmented Reality Development Lab 180
6.5 Open Education Quality Initiative 186
IX