I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning. I thought I would share these as there seems to be a growing interest in the history of educational technology. Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched […] The post A personal history: 27. Working and playing in Mexico first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

Overview I have argued that public higher education institutions can no longer depend on ever increasing revenues for survival. In an era of mass higher education, they need to focus on reducing the cost, to students, parents and government, if they are not only to win back the support of their key stakeholders, but indeed […] The post The crisis in higher education: 8. Thinking outside the box first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

Recap Sorry about the short break in these series of posts but I needed to escape a Canadian winter for a week or so. I am now back (and so is winter). So far in this series I have argued that institutions need to drive down costs without cutting the quality of learning or research […] The post The crisis in universities and colleges: 7: shortening time to qualify first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

Research: more is not better One way in which the costs of post-secondary education could be significantly reduced without reducing the quality of undergraduates is by culling a lot of unproductive and expensive research. We do not need every faculty member in every university to spend an equal amount of time (or more) on research […] The post The crisis in universities and colleges: 6: too much (useless) research first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

The challenge In an earlier post, I suggested that post-secondary institutions needed to reduce the costs of degrees or diplomas by 30% to win back trust and support from government in particular, the general public in general. But how to do this without reducing enrolments, cutting programs or lowering quality? One solution: modern, evidence-based course […] The post Universities and Colleges in Crisis: 5. Reducing the costs of courses and programs first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

The need to reduce costs In three previous posts, I tried to make the case that public universities and colleges were losing the support and particularly the trust of government and voters. The public post-secondary system has expanded enormously, but the cost of a degree or qualification has gone up faster than inflation, placing increased […] The post Universities and Colleges in Peril: 4. Reducing costs first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

Universities and colleges in peril In two previous posts (That was the year 2024, that was and Universities and Colleges in Peril) I argued that there was a growing loss of trust in post-secondary education and as a result, ‘It is not enough … for universities and colleges to whine for more money. It’s not […] The post Universities and colleges in crisis: 3. The need to focus on costs rather than benefits first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

An unsustainable higher education system In recent months, we have seen an existential threat arising for the future of post-secondary education in many countries. Here in Canada, we have been practising a particularly insidious form of colonisation: making people from poorer countries subsidise our higher education system and using immigration to keep labour costs low. […] The post Universities and Colleges in Peril first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

Sorry! First, an apology -actually, two. First, I haven’t posted in over a month, the main reason being I have been quite ill with gastro-entiritis, a really nasty stomach bug of some kind that completely flattened me. The good news is that I am now fully recovered, just in time for the holidays. The second […] The post That was the year 2024, that was first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more

  Dealing with ‘wicked’ problems If like me you are so utterly depressed by the current state of political debate and discussion in Western democracies (it’s not just Trump – see ‘Axe the Tax’ from Pierre Poilievre, or ‘more money in your pocket’ from Justin Trudeau or ‘a buck a beer’ from Doug Ford, in […] The post Using social media to tackle ‘wicked’ problems: rethinking collective decision-making first appeared on Tony Bates ..read more