The Future of Education

Digital Natives have just turned 15, their neural networks look different to humans born previous to this. We are not ready for the changes in decision making they will make as adults. In three years’ time they will be adults making decisions with the power to disrupt our entire system. One of the first decisions they will make will be whether to go to University or not. Disruption is when consumers choose to change behaviour on masse. We live in a culture of instant consumer satisfaction. University is an 800yr old system with a 300yr teaching model that trades in qualifications that take time. Before they enter their first lecture they have had access to all the research, online groups and even gamification of that subject. Over 2,000 of the world’s most successful and innovative organisations have told young people they no longer need to go to university to work for them. How can we adapt quickly enough to make University an attractive option for these evolved humans?

Keywords: Human evolution, digital natives, future of university;