Page 72 - EW July 2025_Neat

International News

Of course it won’t be easy. Getting there means “chang-
ing all things,” he says. “I try to rethink, redesign and react.
That’s my three keywords to achieve that goal.”
Since taking the helm of the private university last year,
Kim has established an “aggressive” plan to improve the
institution’s performance. “We have focused on data-driv-
en, scientific management,” he says, including launching a
digital transformation initiative across the university and
a new centre that collects and analyses university data to
“support effective policymaking”.
For Korea’s private universities, being the best may be
the only way to survive. With the lowest birth rate in the
world, the university-age population is shrinking and, with-
out enough students, institutions have begun to close down.
While Kyung Hee University may be far removed from
the troubles experienced by some small rural institutions Oz TAFE students: political ascendancy
— it has 34,000 students and three campuses, all in the
greater Seoul region — it is more on a par with SKY insti- gree and a BA, I can say this: how many lawyers or history
tutions. But demographic challenges pose a threat to the majors does it take to build a house?”
entire sector. “This is more than a temporary crisis,” says Giles told the Australian Financial Review that he fa-
Kim, describing it as a “fundamental turning point” for the vours a “50-50 split” between higher and vocational educa-
higher education sector. tion. His office told Times Higher Education that this was
To cope with the declining population, the university the “dream scenario”, although the government had not set
plans to grow the number of graduate and international a “rigid” target.
students it enrols “to conduct research at the highest lev- The Universities Accord recommended two attainment
el”. The institution is also increasingly focusing on lifelong targets for achievement by 2050: for 55 percent of 25- to
learning, introducing customised programmes for work- 34-year-olds to have higher education degrees, and for 80
ing professionals and retirees, as well as expanding online percent of working age people to have tertiary qualifications
degree programs. at apprenticeship level or above. But the government has
only adopted the broader tertiary target.
AUSTRALIA The 55 percent target was not mentioned in Labour’s
TAFE popularity surge budget response to the accord and is rarely if ever cited by
politicians, fuelling perceptions that the government has
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING decided to prioritise VET over higher education.
(VET), the perennial bridesmaid of Australian ter-
tiary education, is stealing a march over a univer- UNITED KINGDOM
sity sector that has long held most of the cards. There are Inflation impacts study time
signs that public vocational colleges are gaining political
ascendency over a university sector seen as poorly governed THE AMOUNT OF TIME THAT STUDENTS IN the
and ill-suited to labour force realities. UK are spending studying has markedly declined
Training minister Andrew Giles says the government’s as more than two-thirds take up employment in
promise to fund free technical and further education response to financial worries. The Student Academic Ex-
(TAFE) was a “key dividing line” between his Labour Party perience Survey 2025 says that term-time employment has
and the opposition in the lead-up to the May election. He become “the new normal” and “even the new expectation”
says Labour had made free TAFE a “permanent feature” of following the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic and the
the national VET system — “in fact, we locked it into law” ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
— through the Free TAFE Act, which earmarks funding for And rising levels of employment among full-time stu-
100,000 tuition-free training places per year. dents are starting to affect how much time is spent on study,
“The jobs we need to fill are primarily those supported raising concerns about how money troubles are transform-
by vocational education and training pathways,” Giles told ing the academic experience.
an apprentice employment conference on June 12. “Skills The survey, conducted by the Advance HE and the High-
are at the core of every workforce challenge we face. In New er Education Policy Institute (HEPI), found the number of
South Wales, for example, more than 90 percent of the 400 hours spent on independent study has fallen to 11.6 hours
occupations on the critical skills shortage list require only per week, down from 13.6 hours in 2024 and 15.7 hours in
vocational qualifications. As someone who holds a law de- 2021 – a 26 percent decrease in five years.

72 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2025