Lifelong learning is route to adaptation

In his speech The Future Model of Higher Education, Dr Joseph Aoun, president of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, told the World Government Summit of the need for lifelong learning.

Hanan Al Hroub, recipient of the Global Teacher Prize 2016, speaks at the World Government Summit. Antonie Robertson / The National

DUBAI // The world’s working landscape is changing, with artificial intelligence destroying and creating jobs and professions at unprecedented speed, according to Dr Joseph Aoun.

The higher-education specialist said the landscape needed to adapt to these shifts to allow individuals to remain relevant and competitive in the workforce.

In his speech The Future Model of Higher Education, Dr Aoun, president of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, told the World Government Summit of the need for lifelong learning.

“The paradox of higher education is that we want to change the world, but we do not want to change ourselves,” he said. “We all follow a model that worked at some point but needs to be adapted to new realities now.”

For people to take advantage of the opportunities presented to humankind through technological advances, learners should focus on: data literacy, or the ability to make sense of large amounts of information; information literacy, the ability to extract information through a host of new technologies; and humanics, the ability to communicate, innovate and create.

“Only if our education systems rise to the challenge and accommodate lifelong learning through flexible and experiential teaching methods will universities and higher education systems remain relevant,” Dr Aoun said.

* Wam