Higher Education needs to adopt experiential teaching methods

The world’s professional landscape is changing, with artificial intelligence destroying and creating jobs and professions at unprecedented speed, and the landscape of education needs to adapt to these shifts to allow individuals to remain relevant and competitive in the workforce, said leading higher educational specialist Dr. Joseph Aoun.

Speaking on the opening day of the fifth World Government Summit, WGS 2017, at a session entitled ‘The Future Model of Higher Education’, Dr. Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University, stressed 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. We all follow a model that worked at some point but needs to be adapted to new realities now," Dr. Aoun stated.

In order for individuals to take advantage of the numerous opportunities presented to humankind through technological advances, learners should focus on three key skills areas, including data literacy, which is the ability to make sense of large amounts of information, information literacy, which is 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," concluded Dr. Aoun.

#WGS 2017 has drawn the participation of more than 4,000 personalities from 139 countries around the world, reflecting the leading stature of the summit on regional and international levels and the high interest from governments, global organizations, private and public sector entities, decision makers, entrepreneurs, academics and university students as well as scientists and innovators. The summit features 150 speakers across 114 sessions that highlight the world’s most pressing challenges and showcase best practices and cutting-edge solutions to deal with them.