Even though wishful thinking pleases the mind based on excessive optimism but it never comes without a cost.
In the case of American schools & universities, something similar happened. The assumption was to align the student behavior with social distancing and COVID-19 norms in the long run. Lack of evidence, relevancy, and enforcement strategy ultimately caused the failure of the ‘back-to-school’ plan, making all the investments and resources spent within the last six months went in vain. As a result, misinformed assumptions led schools & universities to return to online education.
But, educating leaders on the impact of innovative higher education can still save the day for educational bodies by helping them prepare for the coming challenges and environmental shifts.
Why is getting over wishful thinking critical for higher education leaders?
Over the past few months post-COVID-19, colleges & universities have been making efforts and huge investments in safety measures to welcome students again. We are almost standing ahead of the ‘back-to-school’ season. And the prime objective of universities is to recover from the COVID-19 shock and deliver the same schooling experience as it was before the pandemic.
While the US schools and universities were constantly preparing to get back at the traditional schooling system for the last six months, we are yet again back to online education.
The money spent on investments was on the foundation of a widely optimistic assumption – that the American population must be willing to comply with new social distancing rules and COVID-19 safety measures.
Apparently, assumptions didn’t turn into reality and all the best plans failed due to an adequate lack of preparation and innovation in the existing traditional teaching system. Thus, educators must understand that running on the same pathway won’t help this time but adapting to new changes or environmental shifts and finding advanced ways to deliver education will.
Most of the universities gain a bigger part of their revenues and maintain their budget from tuition. And we think that may be a reason behind why educational leaders are trying to push students out inside the campus. Since the tuition is just a secondary factor that supports the school’s functioning, educators must differentiate from the mission of the school
How educating leaders on education innovation can change things for the better?
It’s no hidden fact that ancillary services play a critical role in enabling educational institutes to deliver their goal but the need for margins or budget must not overtake leadership and the future of higher education. On the other hand, lack of revenue must also not hinder the way through innovating education.
What can be done then?
The current situation demands educating leaders on the implementation of innovativeness in their thought process. For instance, innovative educational leaders will always take student housing as an opportunity to capitalize rather than lost revenue. Innovative leaders will be able to see through the future and will likewise formulate strategies to make use of the potential assets that others may see as a revenue threat. Such leaders will see student housings as an investment opportunity for real-estate. Selling dormitories to a real estate developer on a sales leaseback will help the institute to maintain its financial budget even when there’s no external funding.
Seeing through the future…
School closures showed us how ineffective our preventative strategies based on wishful thinking are against the pandemic. In the haste of putting students back to the campus, educators overlooked the primary goal of providing the best education to the students in a safe environment and rather focused on earning revenues through the ancillary services.
If the educators don’t anticipate the future of education any soon and see the current landscape as an educational disruption, we might end up entering a dystopian era.
