Free Essay: Challenges Facing Higher Education in the Twenty First Century

The twenty first century is one of the centuries characterized with many changes. Education system in this century is not an exception. According to experts, learning is impossible without change and vice versa. With this in mind, it is imperative to note that education in the century has faced a lot of challenges including

Changes in educational model

Education system in the twenty first century is based on new learning and teaching approaches. These approaches are aimed at developing creative and critical thinking skills that should be integrated in the system. However, the biggest challenge is that there is need to ensure graduates gain the right skills to better their lives and to enhance growth of the economy.

Higher education should transform students from disoriented projectiles and teach them to learn quickly. However, the new approaches do not provide enough room for students to adopt the challenges. Learning is therefore not more active compared to the past century. It is also not entirely connected to the real life situation. Instead, it is customized and designed with students as well as their unique qualities in mind.

Additionally, the need for new education is also posing a great challenge to higher education in the twenty first century. In the past, the main objective for pursuing higher education was to create perfect citizenry. Today, the need for higher education has been entirely shifted to ensuring any graduate is well trained and has further changed to awakening an individual’s critical spirit.

Changes at the level of internal organization

Institutions of higher learning are faced with changes at internal organization level. The changes are often aimed at enhancing management of human and economic resources among others. They should therefore be restructured to enhance internal democracy a factor which, many institutions of higher learning have not been able to achieve.

Learning and research approach in the twenty first century has also been criticized due to lack of autonomy, ethics, responsibility and anticipation. What’s more, many institutions are faced with changes in knowledge creation. For this reason, they lack trans-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches.

Changes in knowledge transfer and social responsibility

The work of the institutions of higher learning should always be relevant. Due to lack of interdisciplinary approaches, most institutions have failed to deliver what is expected of them including research that anticipate social needs and service to the society. It is for this reason that research from many higher institutions of learning is not shared effectively through proper channels.

Changes in communication technologies

Learning in the twenty first century has also been faced with a lot of changes in communication technologies. Many institutions aim at tapping potential information system to enhance digital wisdom. However, there are learning institutions that are not able to tap potential technologies due to financial constraints. This creates a gap between graduates from different institutions.

Lack of internal reformulation

It is with no doubt that higher education plays a crucial role in introducing change as well as progress in the society. It is also a key agent in helping the new generation to build a great future via quality education. Even so, institutions of higher learning often lack internal reformulation thus, affecting higher education.

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Online sources:

http://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Publications/Publications-and-Reports/IIE-Bookstore/RR29-Higher-Education-in-the-21st-Century-Global-Challenge-and-National-Response

http://www.guninetwork.org/resources/he-articles/the-challenges-of-higher-education-in-the-21st-century