The document discusses three major challenges facing higher education institutions: 1) Developing highly qualified people (HQP) who have social impact; 2) Acting as agents of community resilience and development; 3) Making a difference through evidence, capacity building and knowledge. To address these challenges, the author argues that institutions must focus less on rankings and more on engaging communities, requiring students to contribute socially, promoting lifelong learning and strategic foresight, and aligning resources to build knowledge hubs that support community development and resilience. By taking these steps, the author believes institutions can reduce inequality, increase social mobility and engagement, expand learning opportunities, and better demonstrate their accountability and relevance through real outcomes and impacts.

1. Stephen Murgatroyd, PhD FBPsS FRSA
Chief Innovation Officer Contact North | Contact Nord
Our Higher
Education System,
Our Future
Equity, Innovation,
Change
Beyond Diversity: Learning and Working in
an Inclusive World

2. Not Here to Promote the
Book..
❖ But it is available on Kindle and
from lulu.com
2

3. Do We Really Understand Our Challenges?
Top Ten
Challenges

4. Challenges from Outside
❖ Austerity as the new reality of
Governments
❖ The demand for relevance and
tangible outcomes
❖ The focus on STEM as a
response to the future
❖ A demand for more access
rather than better quality - and
the assumption that you can
have both
❖ Private capital and
globalization
4

5. Challenges from Inside
❖ “Procedural fetishism” of the modern college and
university (Peter McKinnon, 2007) - paralysis by
analysis and process.
❖ The trade off’s between quality and innovation - settled
largely in favour of gradualism and mimicry.
❖ The pursuit of brand and status (a.k.a funding security)
❖ Resistance to technology and open educational
resources.
❖ Fear of unbundling
5

6. Five Big Distractions
❖ Rankings and league tables – "PISA for grown up’s"
❖ MOOC’s which are not strategic
❖ The hunt for the holy grail of becoming an
international hub and centre of excellence
❖ Claiming that university research is the engine of
diversification and innovation
❖ Technology is “the answer”
6

7. What We Should Focus On..
The Three Really
Big Issues

8. What Are We Really Supposed to Be
Doing?
1. The development of highly
qualified people who have
social impact
2. Being agents of community
resilience and development
3. Making a difference through
evidence, capacity building
and knowing how to learn -
being the critical-reflective
knowledge hub
8

9. Challenge 1: How Do We Develop..
HQP who Have
Social Impact

10. Why This is Important
❖ Society needs more knowledge “smart” but also “street”
smart, nimble minded self-managing learners who can make a
difference and engage in effective change management
❖ Society needs more First Nations, single parents, recent
arrivals, at risk youth and, in some fields, males to engage in
advanced learning to advance them and those they represent
❖ Communities need leadership and engaged citizens who are
knowledgeable, effective communicators and can actively
promote non-formal and formal learning
❖ Education needs to be more about engendering commitment
to change through knowledge and understanding and less
about mastering a body of “content”
10

11. What We Need to Do
❖ More co-operative programs, more internships and a requirement
for social contribution for more students in more programs
❖ More focus on the idea of the “communiversity” and less on
rankings and brand-status
❖ More focus on the D&D in R&D&D
❖ More investment in social and environmental capital
❖ More focus on the individual as learner than on “batch” learning
and large class size - requiring pedagogic innovation and high
levels of student engagement
❖ More varied forms of assessment to focus more on outcomes and
impact
11

12. Challenge 2: How do We Develop
Community
Resilience Through
Community
Development

13. Why This is Important
❖ Universities and colleges are community hubs for innovation,
change and development - they are also knowledge hubs and
they belong to their communities
❖ Universities and colleges are sustained by their local
communities - we need to feel an obligation to sustain our
communities
❖ Universities are anchors in the business and social innovation
“clusters”in their communities and regions - they should do this
work consciously and with commitment
❖ Universities and colleges know how to process knowledge and
evaluate choices - we should build the capacity of communities to
develop these (and other related) competencies
13

14. What We Need to Do
❖ Stop thinking of our work in knowledge silos, or just in terms of
programs and courses - start thinking of it in terms of building social
capital and capabilities.
❖ Require every student to engage in a community focused research
study / project that seeks to have social impact and transfers skills /
competencies to others
❖ Engage in more cross-boundary learning.
❖ Promote strategic foresight around social, environmental and health
issues.
❖ Let more community members teach and open access to learning for
more members of our communities - systematically make a difference
for under-represented groups.
14

15. Challenge 3: How do we Develop..
As a Critical
Reflective Hub for
our Communities

16. Why This is Important
❖ Universities and colleges are powerful hubs in local, regional and
international knowledge and performance clusters - yet we create
barriers to accessing knowledge, skills and learning.
❖ Life-long learning is the real role of our work - courses and programs
are “teasers” and “competency building” for this real work.
❖ Economic diversification, building powerful and effective health,
education and social networks, reducing crime and building vibrant
communities requires design work, execution and evaluation - we
know how to do this.
❖ When we put our minds to it, we are actually good at this work - look at
the work we have done building Canada’s oil and gas sector, our
effective work on building world-class K-12 education…we have played
key roles.
16

17. What we Need to Do
❖ Build strong strategic foresight capabilities linked to regional
challenges / opportunities.
❖ Develop the skills and competencies of designing social networks
and effective social enterprises.
❖ Harness the power of philanthropy, social enterprise and business
/ government to focus on a narrow range of opportunities to build
jurisdictional advantage and community resilience.
❖ Align significant resources around these possibilities.
❖ Commit to medium and long-term knowledge, learning and
innovation investments to build self-directing clusters and build
their capacities for impact and sustainability.
17

18. What Should be Our Ambitions?
If We Do This,
What Will
Happen?

19. The Impact We Can Have
❖ Less social and income inequality in society and
more social mobility.
❖ More social and community engagement.
❖ More learning more of the time by more people.
❖ More engagement between our institutions and a
broader range of people, groups and communities.
❖ Less demands for accountability and relevance and a
stronger focus on outcomes and impacts.