One of the challenges facing tertiary education in the 21st century is to meet the clamoring demand from the community.
At University, and at UCCI in particular, students are now asking for an increase in the provision of courses leading to all kinds of levels of qualification. It is an accepted fact that today’s learner needs to build towards life-long incremental achievement. Gone are the days of one-time pass or fail. In response to this exponential increase in demand and expectation, post-school learning opportunities, and those for the mature student, are increasing exponentially, especially at UCCI.
At tertiary level it is important to think ‘client’ or ‘customer’ rather than ‘student’. Many people now expect to increase their knowledge, skills and experience, as a school-leaver, while running a business, bringing up a family, or while spending some leisure time in that exotic location we call the Cayman Islands.
The demand for increased tertiary-level opportunity is also driven by employer expectations. These days it is not unusual for people to be faced with a working contract that requires the holder to continually add value to their knowledge, qualifications and experience, as frequently as on an annual basis. And this just to stand still. If it is promotion or a salary raise you are looking for, rather more is expected of you in terms of how much you know and how you apply that knowledge.
Tertiary courses are designed to offer qualifications accessible over the short or long-term, varying in length from seven weeks to six years at UCCI. Courses are semester based, with continuous assessment plus mid-semester and final examinations. Natural breaks occur during public holidays, and clients may choose to suspend study, only to resume it at a later date while carrying earned credits forward.
The ultimate aim of teaching and learning at tertiary level is to guide every student through to satisfactory, value-added, successful achievement in their chosen field of study and then to offer more.
In my classes I am no longer surprised at meeting people aged between seventeen and seventy-two, avid for the learning experience. Increasingly, 21st century learners are electronically sophisticated, adapted to using their ‘blackberry’ and wireless laptop during e-learning, the necessary adjunct to the ‘prescribed diet’ of learning presented in the syllabus and textbook. Tertiary level Professors are expected to be teacher, tutor, facilitator, Lab guide and counselor, all rolled into one, the “guide on the side”, rather than the “sage on the stage”.
Education at tertiary level has so much more to offer the customer these days. First amongst these is the immense variety of courses unparalleled at school. Through skillful match of teaching expertise to a jigsaw-puzzle choice of teaching time-slots, students can plan their week, semester, year and total course-time with complete confidence that a qualification will be within their grasp, tailored to their own time-table.
Have you ever thought of all the reasons why you might want to continue your learning? Here are some of the values of a 21st century life-long education.
ECONOMIC values – flexibility of educational knowledge and academic resources at your command leading to employment / increased earning power, e.g. as financial controller, administrative assistant, hotel manager, appliance technician, scenes-of-crime officer, computer programmer, to name but a few of the vacancies currently advertised in the local newspaper.
EDUCATIONAL values – the accumulation and sharing of knowledge. Become a budding expert on endemic and indigenous plant species, a language, hospitality studies, electronic engineering. Then share with others, perhaps helping them towards an economically beneficial change of career.
AESTHETIC values – the beauty of the subject for its own sake gives people pleasure. Yes, there is an intrinsic beauty to be found in ‘Caribbean Literature’, in the intricacies of Financial or Economic theory or in the study of Chemistry or Physics. Continuing Education programmes offer leisure courses traditionally aligned to Aesthetics, for example art, pottery, massage, carpentry, architecture, offered as Continuing Education courses.
RECREATIONAL values – your leisure activities might include those Continuing Education courses that introduce you to new people so that you can make new friends. The well-designed UCCI campus offers meeting and greeting places and a well-stocked Library.
ENVIRONMENTAL values – many tertiary subjects teach about how human activities of every kind impact on our natural surroundings and resources, e.g. Environmental Science. Educated people realize that we should be working towards sustainability of resources so that in the one world we all share, ‘by living simply, everyone can simply live’.
HEALTH / WELLBEING values – being in control of your life is said to be therapeutic and fundamental to human well-being. A tertiary education can reveal your undiscovered centres of self-control and knowledge, while you learn tactics for reducing stress and making the most of life.
SCIENTIFIC values – Tertiary programmes of study include scientific values to help turn you into a well-rounded citizen. Scientists use the scientific method for testing predictions. We actually do this on a daily basis when buying a pair of shoes or fruit. We test these predictions: ‘This pair of shoes will fit and last”; ‘These tomatoes will have the flavour I like”, just like the scientist. The knowledge gained is recorded and shared to make the world a better place to live in.
SOCIAL / CULTURAL values – a tertiary education aims to make you think even more than you did at school about how human communities are formed and sustained, about how we affect our natural environment and the maintenance of essential community values and traditions. ETHICAL / MORAL values – our right to an education. This is about our rights to discover, uncover, learn, preserve, teach and share knowledge and expertise within each community. There are so many tertiary opportunities out there to improve your chance of success however you may measure it. “Use it or lose it” can be said about the brain, which when put to the task of meeting the challenges of the 21st century, will sooner or later provide what you need. Engage it in tertiary education studies, and you will not be disappointed. Take that risk. It is your right.
