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The becoming of the 4th Industrial Revolution in higher education:  Is higher education ready for the disruption?

Presenter

Prof Venicia McGhie, is an associate professor and HoD of the Department of Academic Development in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape.

Prof McGhie taught Communication Studies at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, and thereafter, became an academic development practitioner in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at UWC since 2002.  She holds a D Phil Degree in Education from the University of Stellenbosch. Her areas of specialisation are Education, Linguistics and Literacy. She is a Fulbright Post-doc Scholar and spent more than a year in the United States – first at the University of Missouri-St Louis campus in St Louis, and later as visiting professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Her research interest is in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with a specific focus on student support, retention and successful learning. At the end of 2017, Prof McGhie co-authored an academic book, titled: Accessing post-school studies: A student’s GPS to successful learning. The book aims to empower learners, their families and the broader communities with knowledge and information on how to prepare for further studies while still at school. Prof McGhie is an esteem writer, mentor and motivational speaker who believes that anything is possible through the grace and mercy of a Living God.

Abstract

The World Economic Forum defines the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as the era of artificial intelligence, robotics, and nanotechnology. It is a disruptive and fast-changing space that requires new ways of thinking, doing, seeing and acting.  The 4IR supersedes the #FeesMustFall student protests, decolonisation of the curriculum, and free education.  As such, the questions that need to be asked are:  Is higher education preparing the staff and their students for the 4IR?  Are they embracing the opportunities and benefits that 4IR will bring? Finally, are they ready to face the challenges that are associated with 4IR? Alongside the challenges, is the reality of the current debate around the relevance of face-to-face education versus a completely and immersed online higher education system for the future.  As such, this paper discusses this ‘dilemma’ based on the students’ protests in 2015 and 2016, and the lessons learned about online education and students’ academic success.  It uses Max Neef’s Human Scale Development Theory as its theoretical underpinning, and argues that post-school institutions should use the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the benefits it brings to strengthen and enhance the facilitation of learning and the acquisition of 21st-century skills for the students they admit.