BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
even greater importance than in the past. The availability of educational content is incredible these days – you can find materials on any topic either for free or at a very low cost. The problem is that digesting raw content is not a deep form of education. Knowledge without associated experience doesn’t often lead to the acquisition of skills. What’s needed is curation, and increasingly, I see it as the role of Business Schools to take on this function. So, I think we will see the paradigm of education as a ‘punctuated event’ (or set of disconnected events) shift to a new paradigm based on an ongoing relationship between learners and their institutions – focused not only on career- enhancing skills, but also on life-enhancing skills in areas such as wellbeing. Do you think recent events have moved us to a more democratised approach to business education? How can you see this evolving? The step-change in the availability of educational content and experiences via digital platforms is opening up access to regions and populations that have been historically undeserved. I think this trend will continue as we see the cost of foundational aspects of education decline and availability increase. That said, education is a moving target. The ‘best’ education a learner might acquire today may become standard tomorrow, with the ‘best’ becoming something new. So while the move to digital may democratise education in terms of giving more people access to basic/foundational education at a low cost, it will be critical for policymakers to determine the distribution of more advanced education that will likely continue to command high tuition fees. Is the business education sector as a whole responding quickly enough to the growth of consumerisation and the changes in alumni demands? What would your advice to Business School leaders be in this area? I see some Business Schools moving quickly, while others are not. I don’t think it’s only about keeping on top of the needs of alumni, it’s about keeping on top of the needs of all learners across the lifecycle of an educational trajectory. That said, I think it’s critical to engage with alumni. Alumni can serve the eyes and ears of their alma mater on the frontlines of the world of work, helping Schools to track trends and anticipate dynamics in the labour market. Where this relationship is bi-directional, an institution can provide better services to meet the needs of its alumni. How did the Covid-19 pandemic change your School for the long term – and what have been your most important learnings during the lockdowns?
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We were among the very first entrants into the world of online education, going back decades. So, for us, the pandemic
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