https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/7-university-leaders-contemplate-the-future-of-higher-education-in-canada/ 

Ken Steele, higher education strategist and president, Eduvation Inc.

I see the development of increasingly personalized and customized programs, modes of delivery and student services as universities continue to diversify the students they serve. More and more, curricula will become modularized and interdisciplinary, and learning will be credentialled through competency-based models rather than models based on credit hours. Experiential learning will be fundamentally integrated, allowing students to weave together classroom study, community-based research, volunteerism and workplace experiences.

Faced with public funding constraints, many universities will create alternative revenue streams through programs to meet the workforce training needs of employers and working professionals. New technologies offer the potential for institutions to share their resources, faculty, programs and credentials, regardless of geography, but this is not yet encouraged by our current funding and budget models, which promote competition over collaboration.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will increasingly outperform humans at narrow technical and specialized tasks over the next few decades. The human advantage will lie in interpersonal and social skills, creative and strategic thinking, the ability to apply a broad interdisciplinary context, ethical and cross-cultural competencies and an entrepreneurial mindset – the very skills instilled by humanities and interdisciplinary programs. The challenge is to preserve our capacity to deliver those subjects, despite the current obsession with professional and career-oriented programs.